Time to pay up: Facebook users can now file a claim for their cut in $725M settlement
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It’s been four months since Facebook owner Meta agreed to a payout of $725 million to settle the legal action over allowing political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica to use the private data of its users. Now a federal judge has given tentative approval to start the process of handing out the cash from the settlement.
While it will be some time before the users will get the actual cash in their hands, they can start the process of submitting a claim. The website, where the users can apply for a claim by tapping on the ‘Submit Claim’ option at the top of the page, says, “If you were a Facebook user in the United States between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022, inclusive, you may be eligible for a cash payment from a Class Action Settlement.”
The form asks the user to fill out their contact details and the details of the Facebook account that was in use between the stipulated time period, where the user would like to receive payment and verification, and attestation under oath.
The deadline for submitting a claim is August 25, 2023
The website also says that if the user’s claim is approved by the Settlement Administrator, they will have to give up the right to sue Facebook ‘in a separate lawsuit about the legal claims or factual allegations this Settlement resolves.’
The other option the user has is to opt out of the payment process altogether, which means they receive no payment. But this allows the user to sue or be part of another lawsuit against Facebook. The user can then choose to hire legal counsel at their own expense.
The complaint against Cambridge Analytica, which worked for former U.S. President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, was filed by Facebook users in a class action suit. The personal data of the users was used without their consent for the purpose of targeted ads and voter profiling during the elections.
The scandal came to light in 2018 when a former employee of the consultancy firm outed information regarding data misuse. According to reports, the firm had paid a Facebook app developer to access the personal information of around 87 million users of the social media platform.
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