Facebook-Parent Meta Slapped With $14-Million Fine In Australia: Here's Why

This legal action is one part of Meta's broader legal issues in Australia concerning its handling of user data.

Meta's potential fine could have amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars.

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The Federal Court in Australia has ruled that Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, must pay fines totalling A$20 million (roughly $14 million) for unlawfully collecting user data through a smartphone app that claimed to protect privacy without disclosing its data collection activities. As reported by Reuters, the court also ordered Meta, along with its subsidiaries Facebook Israel and the now-defunct app Onavo, to pay A$400,000 in legal costs to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which initiated the civil lawsuit.

This legal action is one part of Meta's broader legal issues in Australia concerning its handling of user data, which came into the spotlight during the Cambridge Analytica scandal that erupted during the 2016 US election.

The case revolved around Onavo, a virtual private network (VPN) service offered by Facebook from early 2016 to late 2017. Facebook promoted Onavo as a means to safeguard personal information, but the court found that the company used the app to collect users' location, activity time, and website visits for its advertising purposes.

Judge Wendy Abraham, in her written judgment, highlighted the failure to disclose this data collection, which deprived thousands of Australian consumers of the opportunity to make an informed choice about their data usage before downloading and using Onavo Protect.

The potential fine could have amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars, given that Australians downloaded the app 271,220 times, with each breach of consumer law carrying a A$1.1 million fine. However, the court treated the contraventions as a single course of conduct, resulting in the agreed A$20 million penalty.

Meta responded to the ruling, stating that the ACCC acknowledged it never intended to deceive customers, and the company has since developed tools to offer more transparency and control over user data.

In response to the judgment, ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb stressed the importance of clear information to allow Australian consumers to make informed decisions about their data. The fine serves as a reminder that such practices are not merely an acceptable cost of doing business.