Do You Qualify For A “Facebook Privacy” Payment?

Tens of millions of Americans who have used Facebook during the past 16 years could be qualified to file a claim for compensation against the social media juggernaut for Cambridge Analytica’s violation of their privacy.

Tens of millions of current and former users in the U.S. are now eligible to file a claim for compensation in light of a $725 million class-action settlement reached in a lawsuit claiming that Facebook, the social media giant, shared users’ data without having their authorization.

Everyone that made use of the platform and also was a resident of the United States between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022, is counted as an eligible claimant. The amount that users will get is still to be determined, but it will depend on a number of factors, including legal and administrative fees, the total number of claims that Meta gets, and the amount of time a particular user spent using Facebook throughout the class period.

Each of the eight claimants identified in the settlement documents may get up to $15,000, and a maximum of 25% of the $725 million fund may be used to pay for legal expenses. The balance will be split among perhaps millions of customers.

The lawsuit was introduced by the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, which exposed how the data-mining firm collected personal data from up to 87 million Facebook users via a personality quiz app. As the case grew to encompass further episodes of customer data breaches, concerns over Facebook’s data privacy policies were addressed more extensively. The plaintiffs said that the company neglected to monitor how user content and information was utilized and provided access to third parties without user consent.

One of the plaintiffs’ legal firms, Keller Rohrback, said in December that the arrangement was “the largest settlement they have ever had in a privacy class action in the U.S.” The deal, according to Meta, was “in the best interest of our community at large as well as shareholders,” and the business has “revamped our strategy regarding privacy.”