A New Mexico jury finds Facebook liable for deceiving users about the platform’s privacy protections. The verdict follows a two-week trial in which jurors heard claims that Facebook misled users regarding how their data was handled.
The case focuses on a data breach tied to a third-party personality quiz that harvested information from roughly 87 million profiles. According to the allegations discussed at trial, the data was used for targeted advertising after being provided to a political consulting firm associated with Cambridge Analytica.
Outlets report that Facebook contested aspects of the evidence. Facebook’s lawyers argue that the state’s proof is outdated and that, despite having several years to gather supporting material, New Mexico did not identify more than one comparable instance of a data breach for comparison. The different coverage largely centers on the same core allegations and the dispute over how the evidence is characterized.
