An Australian court ordered Facebook owner Meta Platforms to pay fines totaling A$20 million (Rs 111 crore) for collecting user data through a smartphone application purporting to protect privacy without disclosing its actions. The company, then called Facebook, advertised the app from early 2016 to late 2017, Onavo, as a virtual private network (VPN) to obscure internet users’ online activities by giving them a different IP address. But it collected information including their location, time, and frequency using other smartphone apps and websites they visited for commercial purposes, Judge Wendy Abraham said in a written judgment. The judgment wraps up one strand of the legal issues facing the social network in Australia related to handling personal information since the global data analytics scandal erupted in the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Meta will also have to pay A$400,000 (Rs 2.2 crore) in legal costs to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which brought the civil lawsuit. The ruling is the latest of several against the social media giant in a growing backlash over how it collects personal data and treats it as an asset to be exploited by advertisers.
In other music streaming news, YouTube has launched a revenue-sharing model for videos over 60 seconds that contain licensed music. The feature will see creators receive a 20% of advertising revenue from video viewers. US-based PRO ASCAP has embraced artificial intelligence in the music industry, with plans for an AI-focused symposium, panel session, and startup challenge. The organization’s board of directors has also outlined principles prioritizing rights, compensation, and proper permissions for music used in AI training.
