Meta $META owes a settlement payment to any US-based individual with a Facebook account active between May 24, 2007 and December 22, 2022.
This follows the company’s agreement to pay users $725 million in a class-action settlement last December, for letting Cambridge Analytica access private user data without consent. The now-defunct consulting firm worked for the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and used that data to influence elections around the world.
On Apr. 19, Meta opened a portal for Facebook users to claim a slice of the settlement, and will remain open until 11:59 pm Pacific time on Aug. 25, 2023. After completing eligibility checks, users will be required to sign a Facebook form and choose their preferred payment mode—bank transfer, PayPal $PYPL, or Venmo. Meta states: “Claim forms may be submitted online or printed and mailed to the Settlement Administrator at: Facebook Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation, c/o Settlement Administrator, 1650 Arch Street, Suite 2210, Philadelphia, PA 19103.” Users can only claim this once.
However, the amount received following the claim could be as little as $2.50, given the fact that more than 200 million Americans owned Facebook accounts in the period under consideration. Legal fees in the settlement will take 25% (pdf) off the total payout, with administrative costs also expected to take a huge chunk of the settlement.
Getting a compensation from Meta for sharing your private data with third parties could also take some time. The US District Court for the Northern District of California has set a final approval hearing on Sept. 7 at 1 pm local time, but that approval could be appealed, and those appeals and related legal processes might set the payment deadline back by months, if not years.
