Facebook has been defeated in the Federal Court this morning, with the court dismissing the tech giant’s spurious claim that it doesn’t officially operate in Australia.

This case stems back to Cambridge Analytica’s ‘This is Your Digital Life’ quiz, in which it is alleged the personal information of hundreds of thousands of Facebook users was breached between 2014 and 2015.

The Australian Information Commissioner launched the action back in 2020, claiming Facebook had breached Australian privacy law.

“We claim these actions left the personal data of around 311,127 Australian Facebook users exposed to be sold and used for purposes including political profiling, well outside users‘ expectations,” Commissioner Angelene Falk said.

“All entities operating in Australia must be transparent and accountable in the way they handle personal information, in accordance with their obligations under Australian privacy law.”

Facebook originally argued it didn’t operate cookies, manage logins or store data in Australia, and therefore did not officially operate in the region.

“I reject Facebook Inc’s liminal objection that the only being business being conducted in relation to Australian users was business conducted by Facebook Ireland,” Justice Nye Perram wrote in his ruling.

“At the prima facie level, the Data Processing Agreement provides abundant evidence to the contrary.

“The primary judge was correct to conclude that conclude that an inference was available that Facebook Inc was carrying on business in Australia and that it collected in Australia the personal information which is the subject of the Commissioner’s case.”

Facebook could face a fine of $1.7m for each privacy breach.

“We are reviewing this morning’s judgment and as such we have no comment at this time,” a Facebook spokesman said.