A New Mexico jury is weighing whether Facebook violated the state's Unfair Practices Act over its handling of the Cambridge Analytica data breach. The state seeks up to $5,000 per violation and an order to halt future user-data breaches.
The state's case centers on claims that Facebook failed to stop a third-party personality quiz from harvesting data from roughly 87 million profiles and selling it to Cambridge Analytica for targeted ads; New Mexico estimates about 350,000 residents were exposed. Facebook's lawyers said the platform does not sell user information, investigated suspicious third-party apps after the breach and strengthened safeguards; they argued the state identified only two breaches.
Prosecutors estimated Facebook had more than 1.3 million users in the state at the time and argued the company's privacy statements deceived all residents, not only the roughly 350,000 estimated to be exposed. If jurors accept that wider claim, penalties could reach billions; the judge would set the amount per violation. New Mexico is the only state pursuing the breach claims at trial after a 48-state settlement in which Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion over child-safety issues and was released from future liability for the breach.
