A court in Australia fined Meta Platforms 20 million Australian dollars ($14 million) for gathering user data through the smartphone app Onavo.
According to a report from Reuters, the Australian Federal Court has ordered Meta, through its subsidiaries Facebook Israel and the abandoned app Onavo, to pay the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) AU$400,000 ($270,356) in legal expenses.
The ACCC filed a civil case against Meta because Onavo was advertised as a privacy protection tool but did not disclose its data gathering practices transparently.
According to the article, Judge Wendy Abraham stated in a written sentence that Facebook utilized Onavo to gather users’ location, time, and frequency using other smartphone apps and websites they visited for its advertising objectives.
According to Meta, the ACCC acknowledged its lack of intent to deceive customers and stressed its efforts over the previous few years to develop solutions that would give users more transparency and control over their data usage.
According to Reuters, the fee represents the resolution of one part of Meta’s legal difficulties in Australia related to its management of user data. This legal issue surfaced amid controversy about Meta’s collaboration with the data analytics company Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 US presidential election.
But Meta’s legal problems still need to be done; according to reports, the Australian Office of the Information Commissioner is bringing a civil lawsuit against the company over its interactions with Cambridge Analytica, specifically in Australia.
