Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is offering $37.5 million because it tracked US mobile users, even if they had explicitly turned off their location. Meta itself does not see the problem.
The case was already brought in November 2018. Meta is not convicted but settles for 37.5 million dollars. The San Francisco court still has to approve the settlement proposal.
Facebook mobile users regularly get ads based on where they’ve been. But whoever turned off the location on the device was still traced by Facebook based on their IP address. In doing so, Meta violates local law in California and its own privacy policy, Reuters said.
Meta sees it differently. It made no comment to the news agency but denied that it was wrong.
The fine does not do much financial damage. Meta made a net profit of just under $6.7 billion in the second quarter. The fine is roughly half of what Meta earns in one day.
