German court says Facebook users affected by 3-year-old hacking eligible for compensation, company responds, “…systems were not…”

Germany’s Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has ruled that Facebook users whose data was illegally scraped in 2018 and 2019 are entitled to compensation from Meta, a report has said. The claims of compensation stem from an alleged 2021 data breach where unauthorised parties accessed user accounts by exploiting a vulnerability in Facebook’s friend search feature.
According to news agency Reuters, the court determined that the loss of control over personal data constitutes grounds for damages, even without proof of specific financial harm. Thousands of German users are seeking compensation for what they claim was insufficient data protection by Meta.