Australian Facebook users to share $50m payment after privacy scandal
By David Swan
Facebook users will receive a shared $50 million payment after parent company Meta agreed to a record settlement with Australia’s information commissioner, ending years of legal proceedings.
The commissioner launched Federal Court action against Meta in 2020 over the tech giant’s infamous Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal, in which hundreds of millions of Facebook users allegedly had their personal data released, without their consent, to British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which was then used for political advertising purposes.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta must pay $50 million to Australian Facebook users affected by the Cambridge Analytica scandal.Credit: AP
The scandal led to the downfall of Cambridge Analytica, spurred a #deleteFacebook movement globally and bore a Netflix documentary, titled The Great Hack.
The landmark payment, announced on Tuesday, will end the legal proceedings, and will be paid out next year to potentially tens of thousands of Australian Facebook users. About 311,000 Australian Facebook users are understood to be affected.
In 2022, Meta paid $US1.1 billion in the US to settle legal action relating to the scandal. The $50 million in Australia will be the largest settlement paid by Meta over the scandal outside the US.
The settlements relate to a Facebook app called This Is Your Digital Life, which collected psychological data of millions of Facebook users and their friends. The information was harvested and sold to Cambridge Analytica, which used it to help the 2016 presidential election campaigns of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has apologised for the practice, calling it a “mistake” and a “breach of trust”.
Australian Information Commissioner Elizabeth Tydd.Credit: Alex Ellinghaussen
“Today’s settlement represents the largest-ever payment dedicated to addressing concerns about the privacy of individuals in Australia,” Australian Information Commissioner Elizabeth Tydd said in a statement on Tuesday.
“It represents a substantive resolution of privacy concerns raised by the Cambridge Analytica matter, gives potentially affected Australians an opportunity to seek redress through Meta’s payment program, and brings to an end a lengthy court process.”
Tydd said Meta would appoint a third party to administer the payment scheme, to be announced early next year.
The payments would be available to “individuals who were present in Australia for more than 30 days between November 2, 2013 and December 17, 2015, and either installed the ‘This Is Your Digital Life’ app, or who were Facebook friends of an individual who installed the ‘This Is Your Digital Life’ app”, the regulator said.
Affected Facebook users could “apply for a base payment based on generalised concern or embarrassment, or an alternative amount if they can demonstrate specific loss or damage”, the regulator said.
Facebook users can check a specific help page on the Facebook website to see if they might be entitled to compensation.
Details for how to access the payment scheme will be made public by the second quarter of 2025.
Privacy commissioner Carly Kind, who earlier this year ruled that Bunnings had breached the Privacy Act with its use of facial recognition technology, welcomed the settlement.
“We’re very happy with the outcome. Not only because it delivers something for the Australian community, but also because it establishes a really important principle, which is that the Australian regulatory environment can capture the big tech companies and shape their behaviour,” Kind said.
“The Cambridge Analytica incident was really the first time that the public at large became aware of how much data big tech platforms hold and how much power that data gives them. It was a big wake-up call for communities not only in Australia, but around the world.”
A Meta spokeswoman said the social networking giant “settled on a no-admissions basis, as it is in the best interest of our community and shareholders that we close this chapter on allegations that relate to past practices no longer relevant to how Meta’s products or systems work today”.
“We look forward to continuing to build services Australians love and trust with privacy at the forefront,” the spokeswoman said.
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