U.S. District Court Judge, Rita Lin dismissed with prejudice a class-action privacy lawsuit on  22 May, 2026,  alleging Meta Platforms wrongly collected location data about Facebook users through tracking software embedded in third-party mobile applications It therefore, ruled  that plaintiffs failed establishing Meta knew it lacked users’ permission to collect such information.

The dismissal, issued from Norther District of California federal court in San Francisco, permanently closed litigation brough February 2025 by California resident Lisa Tsering and later joined by Dominique Davis. The plaintiffs alleged Meta receives precise geolocation data from applications using Facebook Audience Network software development kit without users’ consent, violating California privacy laws.

Judge Lin’s ruling established that “the mere receipt of allegedly sensitive user information does not plausibly suggests that the recipient would (or should) know that such information was received without consent.” The decision emphasised that even if plaintiffs’ allegations proved true during trial, the claims wouldn’t establish Meta possessed knowledge, noting that, rather,  it lacked proper authorisation for data collection.

The dismissal with prejudice means plaintiffs cannot amend their complaint and refile the case, representing complete legal victory for Meta on these specific allegations. 

The ruling marks second dismissal of substantially similar claims, Lin previously dismissed an earlier version of the lawsuit in January 2026, allowing plaintiffs opportunities to amend their allegations. The May dismissal closed that path permanently.

Meanwhile, the Facebook Audience Network software development kit enables third-party app developers to integrate Meta’s advertising and analytics tools within their applications. Plaintiffs alleged the SDK automatically transmits precise geolocation coordinates to Meta servers even when users haven’t explicitly consented to location tracking, enabling targeted advertising based on physical movement patterns.

In other words, the lawsuit sought to establish that Meta’s mere receipt of location data from third-party apps should have put the company on notice, stating  that such data collection occurred without proper consent. 

Judge Lin rejected this theory, finding that receiving data from apps using Meta’s SDK doesn’t automatically imply Meta knew users had not  authorised such sharing.

The dismissal arrived as Meta confronts multiple privacy-related legal challenges across various jurisdictions. The company recently faced separate class-action lawsuit alleging OpenAI disclosed ChatGPT queries to Meta and Google through tracking pixels, claims OpenAI disputes whilst maintaining silence on specifics.

Meta previously settled different location tracking lawsuit for $37.5 million in 2022, addressing allegations the company inferred user locations from IP addresses even when location services were disabled. 

That settlement compensated users who turned off location tracking for Facebook app on iOS or Android devices between January 2015 and April 2018.

For advertisers and marketers, the ruling provides legal clarity that platforms receiving data from third-party developers via software development kits bear no automatic liability for upstream consent violations unless they possess actual knowledge users did not  authorise data sharing.

 However, evolving privacy regulations across jurisdictions continue raising compliance complexity as California, European Union, and other markets strengthen data protection frameworks requiring explicit consent mechanisms and granular control over personal information collection.

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