Facebook must give its shareholders emails and other records about how the social media giant handles data privacy, in a suit stemming from the 2015 breach of 87 million users’ data by Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct British political consulting firm. (Reuters)
Talking point: Facebook has declined to comment on the decision. The shareholders sued Facebook in September 2018 in order to obtain the records around Cambridge Analytica and other breaches the company has faced. At the time, they said that if they found wrongdoing, they might sue company officers and directors through a derivative lawsuit, which is brought on behalf of companies to recover money from their leadership or their insurers. In his decision, the judge noted that CEO Mark Zuckerberg told a U.S. Senate panel in April 2018 that the company discovered the Cambridge Analytica breach in 2015, but did not look into it, and it told neither its users nor the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC is investigating Facebook for the breach, and reports have indicated that the settlement may be upwards of US$1 billion and could require the company to create new privacy job positions.