A New Mexico jury found Facebook liable Friday of deceiving users about privacy protections on the social media platform.
It is now up to the judge to determine how much the company would pay, with attorneys representing the state asking for the maximum $5,000 penalty per violation.
The two-week trial in Santa Fe centered on accusations that Facebook deceived users about a data breach stemming from a third-party personality quiz that harvested data from roughly 87 million profiles and sold it to a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, to generate targeted ads. The now-defunct firm’s clients included the 2016 campaign for Donald Trump.
Jurors sided with prosecutors, finding Facebook’s failure to protect user’s data impacted New Mexico’s entire population of more than two million people.
___ Schuettler is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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