Jury finds Meta liable in Cambridge Analytica case

A jury in New Mexico on Friday found Facebook-owner Meta deceived users about privacy protections, in a case linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, US media reported.

Cambridge Analytica was a political consulting firm that was found to have improperly harvested personal data from millions of Facebook users for targeted political advertising, particularly during the 2016 US election and Brexit referendum.

Revelations at the time showed that the company bought harvested data from a personality quiz app called "thisisyourdigitallife" that reached 270,000 users and their friends.

The app ultimately reached roughly 87 million Facebook users worldwide.

Facebook knew Cambridge Analytica had purchased the harvested data in December 2015 but withheld disclosure until April 2018, after a whistleblower came forward, sparking a major political scandal.

The verdict, reached after two weeks of testimony in a Santa Fe court, found the company liable for misrepresenting how personal data was shared with third-party applications.

Jurors found the alleged misconduct reached the entirety of New Mexico's population of more than 2.1 million residents.

Meta insisted after the ruling that its platforms are forums for free expression and it will continue "protecting our users' information."

"We disagree with the verdict and will continue to defend ourselves against efforts to distort our record," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.

Judge Francis Mathew will now determine financial penalties.

New Mexico's attorney general is seeking the maximum fine of $5,000 for each violation, a sum that would reach into the billions of dollars.

The state earlier this year won a separate judgment totaling $942 million in a trial over the company's safety protections for minors.

In August, Meta agreed to an $18 billion multistate settlement mainly about harms to teens and children but that also released the company from Cambridge Analytica liability across 48 states.

New Mexico declined to participate, choosing to pursue its case.