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Facebook Parent Company Meta Settles $37.5M Privacy Lawsuit

The proposed settlement would resolve claims that Meta violated its own privacy policy when it collected, stored and monetized the location data of Facebook users — even after they turned off location services.

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(TNS) — Meta Platforms, Facebook’s parent company, has reached a $37.5 million settlement in a privacy lawsuit that accused the social media giant of tracking users’ location through their smartphones without their permission.

A preliminary settlement of the proposed class action, which still requires a judge’s approval, was filed on Monday in San Francisco federal court.

The proposed settlement would resolve claims that Meta violated its own privacy policy when it collected, stored and monetized the location data of Facebook users — even after they turned off location services on their devices.

According to the class action lawsuit, the company used users’ IP (Internet protocol) addresses to determine where they were, and then used that information for target advertisement.

The deal will cover about 70 million users of Facebook who used the platform in the U.S. between Jan. 30, 2015, and April 18, 2018.

The case, Lundy et. al v. Meta Platforms Inc. was initially filed in November 2018.

In October 2019, the company asked a California federal district court to dismiss the lawsuit, saying that the plaintiffs didn’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

By settling the lawsuit, Meta denies any wrongdoing.

Earlier this year, Meta settled another privacy lawsuit over its tracking practices for $90 million.

That case, which was filed in 2012, accused Facebook of tracking users’ activity online even if they had logged out of the platform through.

That was alleged achieved through a 2010 update called “Open Graph,” in which a plug-in “like” button was used for users to highlight their interests across Internet sites.

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