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Jury finds Facebook liable for deceiving users in Cambridge Analytica case

423 points · 107 comments · pseudolus

  1. ElProlactin · · focus · HN ↗
    > Meta agreed in August to pay up to $18 billion to settle the multistate lawsuit surrounding child safety issues. Buried in the 130-page settlement was an agreement to release Meta from future liability related to the Cambridge Analytica privacy breach, making New Mexico the only state to pursue a case. Florida was the only other state that did not sign the settlement, saying it was not tough enough on Meta.

    This is an inconvenient reminder for people who want more "regulation" and who believe states with high levels of paper regulation like California really care about protecting consumers.

    Years down the line, you'll find that a bunch of the people who worked on these cases have cush jobs working on the other side.

    1. krsw · · focus · HN ↗
      This is such a stupid libertarian take with a dash of neo-liberalism. The fact these ideologies got so much foothold is the only reason they perpetuate. There's enough shared delusion to intrude on reality. Good regulation takes into account the context of what it is regulating. If it was written pragmatically with penalities in proportion greater than the harm it causes you'd have far fewer companies doing fuck shit.

      The penalty should never be less than the profit or approximate value of power gained from the violation. There should be full transparency around the chain of events that constituted the violation and how the resolution was arrived at. No special privileges for mega-corporations. The harm needs to be clearly identified and there should be a process to re-evaluate outcomes that could be reasonably argued are unfair to the victims only.

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