Almost everyone these days is aware of the fact that Facebook, now a part of an umbrella company known as Meta, is not the kind of platform that you would ever want to trust. There are countless examples of the platform doing some relatively underhanded things such as negatively influencing the US election during the Cambridge Analytica scandal just six years ago. It turns out that this is just the tip of the iceberg.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that there has been a class action lawsuit against Facebook that has been pending for about a decade. The details of this lawsuit alleged that Facebook kept tracking users even after they had logged out of their accounts by using cookies in their browser. These cookies were able to detect the kind of activity that users took part in when they used a site that had a Like button similar to the one Facebook had.
Meta just agreed to settle the case in court, offering $90 million as a settlement package. This still needs to be vetted and accepted by the court, but if it manages to go through it will be among the ten highest settlements ever made by a tech company. An essential aspect of this case is that Facebook’s terms of usage claim that it will stop tracking you once you log out, so this case is a prime example of how Meta does not seem to want to follow its own rules even after users agree to them.
While the settlement does not entail an official or legal admission of guilt or wrongdoing it is the strongest indicator so far that Meta is not to be trusted. Even the terms of its user agreement are not all that reliable, and that means that the downward spiral that Meta is currently on after having lost $250 billion of its total value is likely going to continue well into the future. Many would be wondering how Meta plans to deal with the loss of trust that most of its users are experiencing.
H/T: BW.
Read next: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and WhatsApp has finally closed a $1 billion deal with Kustomer after a year of waiting for regulatory approval
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that there has been a class action lawsuit against Facebook that has been pending for about a decade. The details of this lawsuit alleged that Facebook kept tracking users even after they had logged out of their accounts by using cookies in their browser. These cookies were able to detect the kind of activity that users took part in when they used a site that had a Like button similar to the one Facebook had.
Meta just agreed to settle the case in court, offering $90 million as a settlement package. This still needs to be vetted and accepted by the court, but if it manages to go through it will be among the ten highest settlements ever made by a tech company. An essential aspect of this case is that Facebook’s terms of usage claim that it will stop tracking you once you log out, so this case is a prime example of how Meta does not seem to want to follow its own rules even after users agree to them.
While the settlement does not entail an official or legal admission of guilt or wrongdoing it is the strongest indicator so far that Meta is not to be trusted. Even the terms of its user agreement are not all that reliable, and that means that the downward spiral that Meta is currently on after having lost $250 billion of its total value is likely going to continue well into the future. Many would be wondering how Meta plans to deal with the loss of trust that most of its users are experiencing.
H/T: BW.
Read next: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and WhatsApp has finally closed a $1 billion deal with Kustomer after a year of waiting for regulatory approval