Meta was found to have violated California’s wiretap and privacy laws.
Flo, Google, and Flurry settled prior to the trial.
Jury ruling allows potential fines of up to Rs 5,000 per violation.
Meta has once again come under fire for illegal data collection. This comes after a California jury found that the company illegally collected sensitive health data from users of the Flo period tracking app, in violation of the state’s wiretap law. The decision came in response to a lawsuit filed in 2021 against Flo, Meta, Google, and analytics firm Flurry, which claimed that private reproductive health information was accessed without user consent for advertising purposes.
SurveyAs per the court documents, the lawsuit claimed that Flo allowed Meta and Google to intercept in-app communications between November 2016 and February 2019, despite the app’s assurances of privacy. While the accusations against Flo, Google, and Flurry were resolved through undisclosed settlements shortly before the trial, Meta remained the single defendant.
Additionally, the jury found enough evidence to establish that Meta had violated California’s Invasion of Privacy Act by secretly recording or listening in on user activities abroad. Millions of people can have their cases represented, and the statute permits a fine of up to Rs 5,000 for each infraction.
Also read: OpenAI launches GPT-5, its most advanced model yet: What’s new, what it can do, and who gets access
“This verdict sends a clear message about the protection of digital health data and the responsibilities of Big Tech,” said trial attorney Michael P. Canty and Carol C. Villegas in a joint statement following the decision, as quoted by the reports.
Meta, however, has voiced disapproval of the decision and is anticipated to file an appeal. The corporation said, “We strongly disagree with this outcome and are investigating all legal options,” according to the TechCrunch report. “The allegations made by the plaintiffs against Meta are merely untrue. Meta values user privacy, which is why our conditions forbid developers from sending any sensitive information, including health information,” it added.
Follow Us
Ashish Singh
Ashish Singh is the Chief Copy Editor at Digit. He's been wrangling tech jargon since 2020 (Times Internet, Jagran English '22). When not policing commas, he's likely fueling his gadget habit with coffee, strategising his next virtual race, or plotting a road trip to test the latest in-car tech. He speaks fluent Geek. View Full Profile
