LinkedIn User Privacy Class Action Settlement Gets Final OK

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On Tuesday, a California federal judge gave final approval to a class action settlement with LinkedIn members whose passwords were posted online by hackers.

The LinkedIn privacy class action lawsuit was initially filed by plaintiff Katie Szpyrka in June 2012 and was consolidated with three similar class action lawsuits later that year. The consolidated action is called In re: LinkedIn User Privacy Litigation.

The plaintiffs allege they were LinkedIn users who paid for a premium subscription to the career networking website. These premium accounts, which reportedly cost between $19.95 and $499.95 per month, provide users with access to LinkedIn’s social and professional networking services as well as industry standard data privacy and security services, as set forth in LinkedIn’s Privacy Policy.

According to the LinkedIn privacy class action lawsuit, LinkedIn failed to take adequate steps to protect its users’ personal information despite what it promised in its privacy policy. The company’s data security measures had reportedly been outdated since 2006. On June 6, 2012, around 6.4 million LinkedIn member passwords were stolen and their information was posted online.

The parties reached a deal on Aug. 12, 2014, and the LinkedIn user privacy class action settlement was preliminarily approved on Jan. 29, 2015.

Class Members of the LinkedIn user privacy settlement include: “All persons in the United States who paid a fee to LinkedIn for a premium subscription any time between March 15, 2006 and June 7, 2012.” There are approximately 800,000 Class Members who may be eligible for benefits from the LinkedIn settlement.

LinkedIn agreed to pay $1.2 million into a class action settlement fund, and each Class Member who submitted a valid and timely Claim Form will receive a pro rata share of the amount of the fund that remains after notice and administrative costs, attorneys’ fees and the incentive awards have been paid.

According to the order granting final approval to the LinkedIn class action settlement, more than 47,000 valid claims were received by the filing deadline. Therefore, each claimant is expected to receive a payment of $14.81. Funds will be distributed to all Class Member with approved claims within 56 days of the final settlement date.

The deadline to file a claim for the LinkedIn user privacy class action settlement passed on May 2, 2015. If you missed out, sign up for our free newsletter to receive updates on new class action lawsuits and settlements. You can also check out which class action settlements are still accepting claims in our Open Class Action Settlements section.

The plaintiffs are represented by Jay Edelson, Rafey S. Balabanian, Ari J. Scharg and Christopher L. Dore of Edelson PC; Laurence D. King and Linda M. Fong of Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP; Joseph J. Siprut of Siprut PC; David C. Parisi of Parisi & Havens LLP; and Dan Marovitch of Marovitch Law Firm LLC.

The LinkedIn Privacy Class Action Lawsuit is In re: LinkedIn User Privacy Litigation, Case No. 12-cv-03088-EJD, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.