An Australian court has ruled that Meta Platforms, the Facebook owner, must pay a total of AU$20 million (about US$14 million) in fines for collecting user data through a smartphone app that was marketed as a means to protect privacy without disclosing its true intentions.
The Federal Court of Australia also ordered Meta to pay AU$400,000 in legal costs to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which brought the civil suit against the company.
This fine is one of the legal challenges that Meta has faced in Australia related to its handling of user information since the global scandal erupted over its use of data analytics provided by Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 United States elections.
Moreover, Meta is still facing a civil suit filed by the Australian Information Commissioner's Office concerning its dealings with Cambridge Analytica in Australia.
The ruling on Wednesday pertains to the Onavo app for virtual private networks (VPNs), which the company claimed was a tool to maintain the confidentiality of personal information.
VPNs disguise a user's internet identity by giving their computers a different online address.
However, Facebook utilized the app to gather users' locations, timing, and frequency of smartphone app usage, as well as the websites they visited, all for advertising purposes, according to Judge Wendy Abraham's written judgment.
In response to the verdict, Meta, which generated global revenue of $116 billion last year, issued a statement acknowledging that the judge had recognized that they had never intended to deceive customers.
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