Meta Platforms Inc settled a $37.5 million lawsuit accusing Facebook’s parent company of violating users’ privacy by tracking their movements through their smartphones without their permission.
A preliminary settlement of the proposed class action was filed in federal court in San Francisco on Monday, and it must be approved by a judge. It resolved allegations that Facebook violated California law and its own privacy policies by collecting data from users who disabled Location Services on their mobile devices. While the users stated that they did not want to share their locations with Facebook, the company inferred where they were based on their IP addresses and used that information to send them targeted advertising.