A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in penalties for misleading users about the privacy of their data. Judge Francis Mathew set the amount on Wednesday, weeks after a jury ruled against the company in September.
\n\nNew Mexico was the only state to take its claims against Meta all the way to trial. Forty-eight other states settled instead. The ruling comes almost ten years after the Cambridge Analytica scandal first broke, and it shows that large tech companies can face heavy financial consequences when they mislead users about privacy.
\n\nIn September, a jury had found that Meta committed 43 million “willful violations” of the New Mexico Unfair Practices Act.
\n\nThe judge said Mark Zuckerberg knew users did not understand how data privacy works and took advantage of that. He pointed to a message in which Zuckerberg wrote that users “probably don’t understand their current privacy settings.” Zuckerberg also wrote that the company should give users a chance to change those settings but “obviously don’t encourage it.”
\n\nMahoney said Meta is confident it will win on appeal. Until then, he said, the company will keep building a safe and free platform that connects millions of Americans and…
Original source: https://www.timesnownews.com/world
