Meta investors, Zuckerberg settle $8 billion privacy lawsuit tied to Cambridge Analytica scandal
Meta investors on Thursday announced they have settled a long-running lawsuit alleging that CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other current and former company executives mishandled the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal.
Shareholders had sought $8 billion in damages, but the settlement terms are unclear, Bloomberg Law reported.
Investors had accused the executives of ignoring problems at Cambridge Analytica, a now defunct political consulting firm which allegedly improperly collected data about millions of Facebook users. Facebook officially changed its corporate name in 2021 to Meta, which was not named in the lawsuit.
The case included a focus on a $5 billion fine the company paid to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2019 to settle alleged privacy violations tied to the scandal.
The plaintiffs alleged that the company paid the FTC too much in a bid to shield Zuckerberg from personal liability.
A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment and a lawyer for the plaintiff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Suzanne Smalley
is a reporter covering privacy, disinformation and cybersecurity policy for The Record. She was previously a cybersecurity reporter at CyberScoop and Reuters. Earlier in her career Suzanne covered the Boston Police Department for the Boston Globe and two presidential campaign cycles for Newsweek. She lives in Washington with her husband and three children.