An Australian court has reportedly ordered Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, to pay fines amounting to 20 million Australian dollars ($14 million) for collecting user data through a smartphone application, Onavo.
According to a Reuters report, Australia’s Federal Court has ordered Meta, via its subsidiaries Facebook Israel and the discontinued app, Onavo, to reimburse AU$400,000 ($270,356) in legal costs to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The ACCC initiated the civil lawsuit against Meta, alleging that Onavo was promoted as a privacy protection tool but failed to reveal its data collection methods openly.
Facebook used Onavo to collect users’ location, time and frequency using other smartphone apps and websites they visited for its own advertising purposes, Judge Wendy Abraham said in a written judgment, according to the report.
Meta reportedly stated that the ACCC had recognized its lack of intent to mislead customers, and it emphasized its efforts in developing tools over the past few years to provide users with increased transparency and control over their data usage.
The imposed fine marks the conclusion of one aspect of Meta’s legal challenges in Australia concerning its management of user data, Reuters said. This legal matter emerged amid a scandal involving Meta’s association with data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 United States presidential election.
However, Meta’s legal woes are not over yet, as it is reportedly also facing a civil court action by Australia’s Office of the Information Commissioner regarding its dealings with Cambridge Analytica, specifically in Australia.
Cointelegraph reached out to Meta for more information but did not receive a response by publication.
Collect this article as an NFT to preserve this moment in history and show your support for independent journalism in the crypto space.
Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield has resigned from the Labour Party.
The 53-year-old MP is the first to jump ship since the general election and in her resignation letter criticised the prime minister for accepting thousands of pounds worth of gifts.
She told Sir Keir Starmer the reason for leaving now is “the programme of policies you seem determined to stick to”, despite their unpopularity with the electorate and MPs.
In her letter she accused the prime minister and his top team of “sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice” which are “off the scale”.
“I’m so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party,” she said.
Since December 2019, the prime minister received £107,145 in gifts, benefits, and hospitality – a specific category in parliament’s register of MPs’ interests.
More from Politics
Ms Duffield, who has previously clashed with the prime minister on gender issues, attacked the government for pursuing “cruel and unnecessary” policies as she resigned the Labour whip.
She criticised the decision to keep the two-child benefit cap and means-test the winter fuel payment, and accused the prime minister of “hypocrisy” over his acceptance of free gifts from donors.
“Since the change of government in July, the revelations of hypocrisy have been staggering and increasingly outrageous,” she said.
“I cannot put into words how angry I and my colleagues are at your total lack of understanding about how you have made us all appear.”
Ms Duffield also mentioned the recent “treatment of Diane Abbott”, who said she thought she had been barred from standing by Labour ahead of the general election, before Sir Keir said she would be allowed to defend her Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat for the party.
Her relationship with the Labour leadership has long been strained and her decision to quit the party comes after seven other Labour MPs were suspended for rebelling by voting for a motion calling for the two-child benefit cap to be abolished.
“Someone with far-above-average wealth choosing to keep the Conservatives’ two-child limit to benefit payments which entrenches children in poverty, while inexplicably accepting expensive personal gifts of designer suits and glasses costing more than most of those people can grasp – this is entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour prime minister,” she said.
Ms Duffield said she will continue to represent her constituents as an independent MP, “guided by my core Labour values”.