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.
How to claim the Facebook’s Cambridge Analytics settlement
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, 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.