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Judge Approves $5M AOL Search Data Class Action Settlement
By Matt O’Donnell
A federal judge on Friday approved a $5 million class action lawsuit settlement between AOL Inc. and over 650,000 AOL members whose search queries and screen names were made public by the company in 2006. Class Members can receive between $50 and $100 if they submit a valid Claim Form.
On May 24, 2013, U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton granted final approval to the AOL data search class action settlement, which was reached in February. The settlement resolves a class action lawsuit (Landwehr v. AOL Inc) that alleges the Internet company violated privacy and consumer protection laws by making some users’ search queries available for download at research.aol.com. AOL said the search data was anonymous. According to the class action lawsuit, however, some users’ identities could be determined from the search data.
Class Members of the AOL search data settlement include anyone who lived in the United States or its territories at any time between March and May of 2006 and had their search query data available for download from research.aol.com in 2006.
Class Members that submit a valid Claim Form can receive up to $50 or $100, depending on which Settlement Tier they fall under.
As of the publish date of this article, no claims filing deadline has been set, but you may need to file a claim as early as July 26, 2013. Keep checking Top Class Actions or sign up for our free weekly newsletter below to receive updates on the AOL class action lawsuit settlement as they occur.
Claim Forms and more information on your rights in the AOL Search Data Class Action Lawsuit Settlement can be found at www.AOLSearchDataSettlement.com. Detailed claims filing instructions can be found in our Open Lawsuit Settlements section.
UPDATE: Payments for the AOL Search Data Class Action Settlement have been mailed. Class Members are reporting to Top Class Actions that they began receiving their settlement checks on Nov. 18, 2013.
All class action and lawsuit news updates are listed in the Lawsuit News section of Top Class Actions
4 thoughts onJudge Approves $5M AOL Search Data Class Action Settlement
Was using AOL from 2005 to 2008
cannot find claim form
Please send me form or include me in suit please
I cannot find the claim form to make a claim