How to apply for your share of Facebook’s $725 million settlement.
- Facebook users who maintained an account between May 2007 and Dec. 2022 can submit a claim for their share of a $725 million class action settlement.
- Meta, the parent company of Facebook, did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
- The settlement is part of the years-long litigation over Facebook’s relationship with Cambridge Analytica, which harvested the personal data of 87 million Facebook users.
Numerous lawsuits were brought on behalf of Facebook users who allege that Facebook (now Meta Platforms, Inc.) shared or otherwise made accessible to third parties (including but not limited to third-party app developers, “whitelisted” parties, business partners, advertisers, and data brokers) user data and data about users’ friends without permission of the users whose data was shared, and did not sufficiently monitor and enforce third-party access or use of that data.
Who’s Eligible
The Settlement Class includes all Facebook users in the United States between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022, inclusive (the “Class Period”).
You may file a claim if you were a Facebook user in the United States between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022, inclusive. Each Settlement Class Member may only file one claim.
Settlement Pool: $725,000,000
Potential Award:
If the Settlement is approved by the Court, Meta will establish a Settlement Fund of seven hundred twenty-five million dollars ($725,000,000.00) to pay all valid claims submitted by the Settlement Class Members, as well as notice and administration expenses, any attorneys’ fees and costs, and any Service Awards for the Settlement Class Representatives.
What can I expect to receive:
The answer depends on how many Settlement Class Members submit valid claims and how long you were a user on Facebook during the Class Period.
First, the total amount distributed will be the Settlement Fund minus the Administrative Costs, any amount awarded by the Court as fees and costs to Class Counsel, and any Service Awards to the Settlement Class Representatives. The resulting amount is called the “Net Settlement Fund.” The Net Settlement Fund is the amount of money available to be distributed to Settlement Class Members.
Next, the Net Settlement Fund will be allocated to Settlement Class Members who submit valid claims, also called “Authorized Claimants.” The Settlement Administrator will assign each Authorized Claimant one point for each month in which the Authorized Claimant had an activated Facebook account during the Class Period.
After the deadline for submitting a claim the Settlement Administrator will add up all the points assigned to all the Authorized Claimants and divide the Net Settlement Amount by that number. The result will be the amount of the Net Settlement Fund available for each point. Each Authorized Claimant will receive that per-point amount multiplied by the number of points they were assigned.
Claim Form Deadline:
August 25, 2023, at 11:59 PM PT