OddsFrontNew Mexico opens Facebook trial over Cambridge Analytica data harvesting
Jurors will consider whether Facebook failed to protect or warn users after information from about 87 million profiles reached a political consulting firm involved in the 2016 election.
An old scandal reaches a new jury
Opening statements have begun in New Mexico's civil trial against Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal, bringing unresolved questions from the 2016 US election before a Santa Fe jury. The state alleges that Facebook failed to warn or protect users when data harvested through a personality-quiz application was transferred to the political consultancy, whose clients included Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
New Mexico says the application collected information associated with roughly 87 million Facebook profiles and that about 350,000 state residents were exposed. The state contends that Facebook identified more than 2,000 potentially problematic applications internally but did not adequately notify users or ensure deletion of data. These are allegations presented by the state and have not yet been accepted by the jury.
Facebook disputes the case
Facebook's lawyer argued that the company investigated suspicious third-party applications, banned developers and strengthened safeguards after the scandal became public. The defence also maintains that much of the state's evidence concerns practices that have since changed and that users exercise choices over data sharing. Cambridge Analytica closed in 2018, but the litigation concerns Facebook's own conduct and responsibilities.
The trial is expected to last about four weeks and will include a recorded deposition from Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. Jurors will decide how many violations of New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act occurred, if any. The judge would then determine the penalty, which can reach $5,000 per violation, and consider the state's request for an injunction against future data breaches.
Privacy, elections and platform accountability
The case matters beyond one state's potential recovery because the harvested information was allegedly used for political targeting. New Mexico told jurors that Cambridge Analytica sought to influence Democratic turnout. Facebook contests the state's account and liability. The jury must therefore distinguish evidence about improper data access from broader claims about the consultancy's political strategy and its effect on voters.
An OHCHR report on privacy in the digital age supplies the wider institutional context: extensive digital profiling can expose people to monitoring and manipulation and can affect rights beyond privacy itself. The New Mexico proceeding will not establish a global privacy standard, but it may clarify how an American consumer-protection law applies when a platform's data controls intersect with political campaigning. The next material evidence will come through witness testimony, Zuckerberg's deposition and the jury's findings.