After jury finds Meta misled Facebook users over data privacy, New Mexico wants company …

The state of New Mexico asked a state judge to order Meta to pay between $35 billion and $40 billion in civil penalties, following a jury verdict that found the tech giant repeatedly misled users about consumer privacy on Facebook. The request was made during a penalty hearing stemming from the fallout of the Cambridge Analytica controversy, as per a report by news agency Reuters. The British political consultancy, which worked on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, harvested personal data from up to 87 million Facebook users via a third-party application without their explicit consent. The Santa Fe jury reached its liability verdict on September 25. State District Judge Francis Mathew, who presided over the proceedings, will determine the exact financial penalty Meta must pay. Tense hearing over penalties During the hearing, counsel for both sides argued over the scale of potential damages. Attorneys for Meta argued that the state’s penalty demands were disproportionate to the specific conduct presented during the trial. Judge Mathew challenged that view from the bench, observing, “Well, when the parties go to trial, they roll the dice. They have to accept the consequences of their decision to go to trial, do they not?” The legal
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