California jury rules Meta violated privacy law in case involving period-tracking app
The jury ruled that the plaintiffs proved that Meta violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act, according to a verdict form filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for Northern District of California.
The ruling stems from a class-action lawsuit dating back to 2021 against the health-tech company Flo Health and other businesses like Meta, Google-parent Alphabet and smaller data analytics firms.
Flo Health told users that "their sensitive reproductive health information" and survey questions would not be disclosed, but that personal data ended up being shared with companies like Meta and Google via their respective online ad-related tools known as software-development kits, according to a separate court filing.
Google and one of the analytics firms agreed to settle their claims prior to a jury trial that began in July, while Flo Health settled the day before the trial's conclusion on Aug 1. Meta chose to take the case to court and lost. The social media company is expected to appeal the verdict.
"This verdict sends a clear message about the protection of digital health data and the responsibilities of Big Tech," said lead trial lawyers Michael Canty and Carol Villegas of Labaton Keller Sucharow in a shared statement. "Companies like Meta that covertly profit from users' most intimate information must be held accountable."
A Meta spokesperson said the company disagreed with the ruling.
"The plaintiffs' claims against Meta are simply false," the Meta spokesperson said in a statement. "User privacy is important to Meta, which is why we do not want health or other sensitive information and why our terms prohibit developers from sending any."
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