Meta Agrees to Pay $90Mln Settlement in Lawsuit Over Data Privacy Concerns

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US tech company Meta (formerly known as Facebook) agreed to establish a $90 million settlement fund in order to resolve a lawsuit over user data privacy concerns, according to court documents.

"For the injunctive relief, Defendant Meta… has agreed to sequester and delete all data that Plaintiffs alleged was wrongfully collected during the Settlement Class Period. For the monetary relief, the proposed Settlement also establishes a fully non-reversionary Settlement Fund of $90 million," one of the court documents, filed late on Monday evening, said.

If the settlement is approved, it will also resolve a parallel class action in California State court, the document said.

The decade-old lawsuit concerns Meta’s use of cookies to track user data, even after log-off, between 2010 and 2011. The settlement agreement still must receive final approval from the court.

Meta had successfully defended against the lawsuit for years before the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth District, which determined that its actions created economic harm and required actual user consent. The US Supreme Court later denied a request by Meta to review the case.