The High Court will soon decide if Facebook is liable for mass data breaches. 

A legal battle between Facebook's owner, Meta, and the Australian Information Commissioner over the infamous Cambridge Analytica data breach is soon to be heard in the High Court. 

The breach occurred in 2014 when Cambridge Analytica collaborated with a Facebook app developer to create an application that collected data from over 50 million Facebook users worldwide without their knowledge or consent. 

The app collected data not only from those who used Facebook to log into personality quizzes but also from their friends on the platform. 

In Australia, 53 people logged in to the quiz via Facebook, exposing up to 300,000 Facebook friends to possible data breaches.

When the issue came to light in 2018, Facebook quickly cut ties with Cambridge Analytica and restricted data access to third parties. 

However, the company has since faced legal action and fines in the UK and US. In 2020, Facebook began fighting legal action in the Australian courts over breaching privacy laws in the country. 

The Australian Information Commissioner will argue in the High Court that Facebook interfered with the privacy of over 300,000 Australian Facebook users between March 2014 and May 2015. 

The Commissioner claims that the personal information shared with the third-party app breached Australian privacy laws.

Facebook has previously been found guilty in the Federal Court, but the company is challenging the foundation of the case in the High Court. 

Facebook argues that at the time of the breach, it did not have a commercial presence in Australia, with no personnel, revenues, or business premises. 

The penalties for privacy breaches under Australian law increased last year from $2.2 million to either $50 million or three times the value of any monetary gain. 

If any penalty is imposed, it would be under the earlier regime as the prosecution began in 2020.