Australian court rejects Meta's appeal

SYDNEY: The Federal Court in Australia on Monday dismissed Meta's appeal in a bid to throw out a Cambridge Analytica data lawsuit from the country's privacy regulator. The rejection means the Office of Australian Information Commissioner's (OAIC) lawsuit against Facebook, now Meta, can finally be heard in court. Meta had claimed that it neither conducts business nor collects personal information in Australia. The full bench dismissed Meta's argument that Facebook platform merely acted as an overseas website that provides data to an Australian device when requested to do so as being "divorced from reality".

"The problems with this submission are first that it proves far too much, and secondly that it is, with respect, divorced from reality," Justice Nye Perram wrote in his judgment.

The court found Meta's installation of cookies on the physical devices of Australian users was sufficient in meeting the threshold of conducting business and collecting personal information in Australia, reports ZDNet.

"What this case decides is only that an inference may be drawn that a firm which installs and removes cookies in Australia (and which also manages for Australian developers a credential system which is widely used in Australia) is carrying on its worldwide business of data processing in this country." (IANS)

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