Meta Made 43M Misleading Statements, New Mexico Jury Finds, Including on Its Cambridge Analytica Response
A New Mexico jury on Friday "found Facebook liable for deceiving users" about its privacy protections, reports the Associated Press. A New Mexico newspaper calls it "another massive legal victory" against Facebook, reporting that the jury found Facebook "had committed tens of millions of violations of the state's Unfair Practices Act in connection with its lies to consumers about how their…
In a significant legal ruling, a New Mexico jury determined that Facebook was deceitful in its communications with users regarding privacy protections, according to the Associated Press. The newspaper hailed this as a major triumph for Facebook, citing the jury's decision that the company had committed millions of violations of the state's Unfair Practices Act due to falsehoods about how user data was managed by the company and third-party entities.
The state has petitioned Facebook to be ordered to pay the maximum civil penalty, which could amount to billions of dollars. The jury also found Facebook to be dishonest about its investigation and response to the 2013 Cambridge Analytica data breach, where roughly 300,000 users participated in a personality quiz, leading to the unauthorized collection of data from tens of millions of friends.
This data was subsequently handed over to the British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which utilized it to create politically targeted ads during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The verdict came after a two-week trial following a lawsuit filed by New Mexico's attorney general in 2021, three years after the Cambridge Analytica scandal was brought to light.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez commented on the case, stating that it exposed the company's reckless disregard for the rules. Jurors found 26 out of 29 statements identified by the state to be misleading, including remarks about user data. Judge Francis Mathew will now determine the civil penalties following the jury's findings, which indicated over 43 million violations based on the number of individuals impacted by Facebook's deceptive statements.
Torrez indicated that his office is assessing the amount to seek but plans to pursue the maximum penalty as recommended by the jury. The state will also request Judge Mathew to instruct Facebook to implement changes, which could encompass corrections to misleading statements and an audit of data management practices.
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