UK Suit Claims Facebook Exploited Personal User Data

Facebook, now known as Meta, faces a fine of over $3.2 billion over allegations that it exploited data and abused its market dominance, Reuters reported Friday (Jan. 14), reported PYMNTS.

A senior adviser to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, said she was bringing the class action case on behalf of Facebook users in Britain that used the platform between 2015 and 2019.

Per the report, Facebook allegedly earned billions of pounds through its unfair terms and conditions, which made users give up valuable personal data to access the popular social media network.

In response to the lawsuit, Facebook said that those who used its services did so because it was valuable for them, and “they have meaningful control of what information they share on Meta’s platforms and who with.”

Gormsen said there was a “dark side” to Facebook in that it reportedly abused its market dominance and put these unfair terms and conditions on users by collecting data through things like Facebook Pixel. This reportedly allowed it to build an “all-seeing picture” of internet usage, generating detailed profiles of users.

Facebook has also been fighting an antitrust lawsuit by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. PYMNTS reported that the FTC lawsuit will be allowed to continue with its allegations of monopolization, rejecting Facebook’s dismissal requests.

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