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It's an expensive day for Meta. First, Australia announced a $50 million AUD ($31.7 million USD) settlement with the company over the Cambridge Analytica scandal and now the Irish Data Protection Committee (IDPC) has issued Meta a 251 million ($263 million) fine. The IRDC's fine stems from a personal data breach on Facebook in 2018. Hackers had exploited a "vulnerability in Facebooks code," related to the View As feature, the company said at the time. It allowed them to get hold of users' access tokens and take over those accounts. The bad actors were able to log on to about 29 million global users' Facebook accounts, including three million users in the European Union and European Economic Area. They gained access to information such as a users full name, email address, phone number, location, date of birth, religion and childrens personal data. The IDPC holds Meta responsible for not having proper data protection when designing its processing systems, not processing personal data only when specifically necessary and not disclosing all the information about the breach. "This enforcement action highlights how the failure to build in data protection requirements throughout the design and development cycle can expose individuals to very serious risks and harms, including a risk to the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals," DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle stated. "By allowing unauthorised exposure of profile information, the vulnerabilities behind this breach caused a grave risk of misuse of these types of data." Down under, the Cambridge Analytica scandal settlement stems from a whistleblower who revealed in 2018 that the company had "exploited Facebook to harvest millions of peoples profiles." Facebook had found out about it three years earlier. Cambridge Analytica took this information to influence US voters for Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and the Pro-Brexit campaign. The company was previously led by Steve Bannon, who recently served time in jail for his refusal to cooperate in the January 6 investigation. The settlement should provide payment to an estimated 311,127 people. Eligible parties must have had a Facebook account from November 2015 to December 2015, spent more than 30 days in Australia during that period and personally or had a Facebook friend who installed the This is Your Digital Life app. Meta previously agreed to pay $725 million to users in the US. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/ireland-fines-meta-263-million-for-2018-view-as-data-breach-133042475.html?src=rss
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The stench of Cambridge Analytica is still hovering over Facebook, as parent Meta just agreed to pay 311,000 Australian users AUD $50 million ($31.7 million) over the scandal. The settlement with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) comes after a four-year dispute with Meta and follows a $725 million award in the US, along with payouts in the UK and elsewhere. "It represents a substantive resolution of privacy concerns raised by the Cambridge Analytica matter; gives potentially affected Australians an opportunity to seek redress through Metas payment program; and brings to an end a lengthy court process," said Australian information commissioner, Elizabeth Tydd. Cambridge Analytica, now defunct, accessed the personal data Australian users by an app (This is Your Digital Life) and used the information gathered to target individuals with personally tailored messages. The scandal was exposed by The New York Times and The Guardian in 2018, thanks in large part to whistleblower Christopher Wylie. Though the app was only downloaded by a small number of users, it also accessed the data of their friends, affecting 311,127 people overall. Meta will be required to set up a payment system run by a third-party administrator starting in early 2025. Lesser payments will be issued to people who've experienced "generalized concern or embarrassment," with higher sums meted out to those who can demonstrate that they suffered loss or damage. Anyone affected should be able to apply in Q2 2025. In a statement, Meta displayed no contrition and said the settlement was more or less a business decision. "We settled as it is in the best interest of our community and shareholders that we close this chapter on allegations that relate to past practices no longer relevant to how Metas products or systems work today," a spokesperson told The Guardian. The case took four years to resolve largely because Meta claimed it wasn't technically doing business in Australia, but that argument was finally slapped aside by the nation's highest court. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/cambridge-analytica-scandal-still-lingering-on-as-meta-settles-with-australian-users-130016215.html?src=rss
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The holidays havent even kicked off, but were already looking to next year when, almost immediately, some of the Engadget team will head to Las Vegas for techs biggest annual conference. The pitches from companies, both legit and unhinged, are already filling our inboxes and spam tabs, so what are we excited about? Getty Images Excited might not be the word, but we expect AI to become even more pervasive in good and overhyped ways. There will also be the usual slew of new processors and subsequent laptops. We expect NVIDIA to debut its long-awaited RTX 5000 video cards at CES, while AMD CEO Lisa Su has confirmed well see next-generation RDNA 4 GPUs early next year. While 2024 was a year of endless AI PC hype, 2025 might be a year of reckoning. Microsofts long-delayed Recall feature is slowly trickling out to more users, for example, but is still facing struggles. PC makers in 2025 will have to actually prove their new AI-laced devices can live up to their claims. There are also audio products, EVs, flying EVs (!) and more. Check out the full CES 2024 preview. Mat Smith The biggest tech stories you missed Googles new AI tool Whisk uses images as prompts Ankers Prime Power Bank with charging base is back at a record-low price Meta is rolling out live AI and Shazam integration to its smart glasses Get this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here! Metas Threads has grown to 300 million users More than 100 million people use the site every day. Cementing its status as the fastest growing social network ever (with a heavy nepo-baby lift from Instagram), Threads has hit 300 million users, with over 100 million people using the site every day. We could see some big changes for Threads as Meta capitalizes on that growth. The company reportedly has plans to experiment with the first ads for threads in early 2025, according to a recent report in The Information. While its still a ways off, Zuckerberg has repeatedly speculated that Threads has a good chance of becoming the companys next billion-user app. Continue reading. TikTok asks the Supreme Court to delay upcoming ban The social media app is just a few weeks away from a potential ban. Its a tale of two social media networks today. After a federal court last week denied TikToks request to delay a law that could ban the app in the United States, the company is now turning to the Supreme Court to buy time. The social media company has asked the court to temporarily block the law. The company, which argues the law is unconstitutional, lost its initial legal challenge earlier this month. The company then requested a delay of the laws implementation, saying President-elect Donald Trump had said he would save TikTok. That request was denied on Friday. TikTok is now hoping the Supreme Court will intervene to suspend the law, otherwise, app stores and internet service providers will begin blocking TikTok next month. Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121528225.html?src=rss
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