Zuckerberg Settles Lawsuit Over Cambridge Analytica Scandal

• Jul 17, 2025

Mark Zuckerberg and several Meta board members have reached a settlement in a shareholder lawsuit tied to the 2018 Cambridge Analytica data scandal, according to reports by AFP. The settlement was announced Thursday, just one day after the trial officially began in court.

The $8 billion class-action lawsuit accused Zuckerberg and other Meta leaders of failing to protect user data and misleading investors about the risks of data misuse on Facebook. Shareholders claimed the company did not fully disclose the dangers that users' personal information could be harvested by third parties like political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

In a statement to CBS News, Meta declined to comment on the settlement but emphasized that the lawsuit was filed against Zuckerberg and board members personally—not against the company itself.

The core of the lawsuit centered on Facebook’s alleged violation of a 2012 consent order with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). That order prohibited the company from collecting and sharing users’ personal information without their consent. Shareholders argued that Facebook repeatedly ignored the order, continuing to allow unauthorized access to user data and removing privacy disclosures required by the FTC.

According to the complaint, Facebook later sold users' personal data to commercial partners, directly violating the terms of the agreement. These actions, investors claimed, put Facebook at legal and financial risk while misleading shareholders about the true state of its privacy protections.

The timing of the settlement is also notable. It came on the same day Marc Andreessen, a member of Meta's board and co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, was scheduled to testify in court, as reported by AFP.

Although the specific terms of the settlement have not been publicly disclosed, the agreement brings an abrupt end to what could have been a lengthy and high-profile legal battle.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal remains one of the most damaging privacy controversies in Facebook’s history, with far-reaching implications for how social media companies handle user data and communicate risks to investors.