Facebook-Meta To Pay $90 Million For Spying On Users' Like Button Activity

Facebook's parent company Meta has agreed to $90 million to settle a lawsuit over how Facebook tracked users' online activity. The lawsuit from 10 years ago is about Facebook's access to a user's internet activity even if they had logged out.

Already considered one of the largest settlements in history of social media biggies like Meta, the agreement will be among the 10 largest data privacy class action settlements in the US - of course, if approved.

Vanity Fair

In 2010, Facebook rolled out an update called "Open Graph" that was intended to let "friends" on Facebook get a closer look at each other's activity and interests. The ability to "like" interests across Facebook was also rolled out at this time.

Using the "like" button to track users

This "like" button plug-in gave Facebook permission to gather a lot of user data. In classic Facebook fashion, the company collected cookies (that are essentially a trail of user activity on Facebook) which gave the company access to what sites a user was visiting, what items they viewed and purchases, and other interactions they may had with the website.

Reuters

Also read: Meta's Facebook Sued For Misuse Of User Facial Recognition Data In Texas

This is especially jarring because Facebook was tracking user activity regardless of the user using the "like" button, court documents claim. At the time, Facebook said that it would stop collecting cookies when users were logged out. But a 2011 article on Wall Street Journal shows how the company continued to collect cookies even after users had logged out.

The Obiter

The settlement requires Facebook to delete all user data that was collected through the "like" plug-in and applies to all Facebook users in US who had an account between April 22, 2010 and September 26, 2011, CNN reported.

Also read: Ransomware To Speedy 5G Attacks: A Security Pioneer's Take On Metaverse Dangers

What do you think about this lawsuit that aims to tame Meta? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.

References

Clare Duffy, CNN Business. (2022, February 15). Meta agrees to pay $90 million to settle lawsuit over Facebook tracking users¡¯ online activity. CNN.