Courtney Jorstad  |  February 5, 2015

Category: Consumer News

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A LinkedIn proposed $1.2linkedin5 million class action settlement was granted preliminary approval by a California federal judge over a 2012 data breach, in which customers alleged that they were deceived about the data protection policies held by the professional networking website.

“The settlement agreement falls within the range of possible approval as fair, reasonable, adequate, and in the best interests of the class,” U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila wrote about the LinkedIn class action settlement in his decision.

The data breach class action lawsuit was filed by plaintiff Khalilah Gilmore-Wright, who alleged that she purchased a premium LinkedIn account because she thought she and other class members trusted that the networking company used industry standard security.

However, after a data breach in 2012 that resulted in 6.5 million passwords being released on the internet, Gilmore-Wright claims it showed that LinkedIn’s security systems were old and insufficient. She filed the LinkedIn class action lawsuit shortly after the breach.

Gilmore-Wright claimed in her LinkedIn class action lawsuit that she would not have become a LinkedIn premium member if she knew that LinkedIn’s security protections were so weak and vulnerable to hackers.

This class action settlement gives LinkedIn Class Members up to $50, if they bought premium memberships to the website. In addition, LinkedIn has agreed to add additional protection to customer passwords through “salting” and “hashing” for the next five years.

There were 800,000 LinkedIn members who purchased premium subscriptions from 2007 to 2012 for at least $19.95 per month, the LinkedIn data breach class action lawsuit court papers said.

However, if users want to submit a claim to benefit from this class action settlement, they must claim that they read LinkedIn’s privacy policy before agreeing to purchase the membership and that the statements about the website’s security measures were a deciding factor in purchasing the premium membership.

The data breach class action lawsuit predicts that only about 20,000 to 50,000 subscribers will qualify for payment from the class action settlement fund.

If there is any money left over from the class action settlement fund that isn’t claimed by class members, it will go to the Center for Democracy and Technology, World Privacy Forum and the Carnegie Mellon CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory.

Class Members are set to be notified of the LinkedIn class action settlement via email by Feb. 26. The hearing for the final approval of the class action settlement will be held on June 18.

Gilmore-Wrights LinkedIn data breach class action lawsuit was consolidated by Judge Davila in November 2012 with four other class action lawsuits making similar allegations over the LinkedIn data breach from 2012.

The California federal judge had dismissed the class action lawsuits in March 2013, concluding that plaintiffs had not proved they suffered economic harm from the data breach, but gave them leave to filed an amended class action lawsuit, which Gilmore-Wright subsequently did.

Judge Davila denied LinkedIn’s motion to dismiss the class action lawsuit in March, which prompted class action settlement negotiations between the two parties.

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 LLO, Joseph J. Siprut of Siprut PC, David C. Parisi of Parisi & Havens LLP and Dan Marovitch of Marovitch Law Firm LLC.

LinkedIn is represented by Michael G. Rhodes, Matthew D. Brown, Benjamin H. Kleine and Kathlyn A. Querubin of Cooley LLP.

The LinkedIn Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is In re: LinkedIn User Privacy Litigation, Case No. 5:12-cv-03088, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: Instructions on how to file a claim for the LinkedIn user privacy class action settlement are now available! Click here or visit www.LinkedInClassActionSettlement.com for details.

UPDATE 2: A California federal judge gave final approval to the LinkedIn user privacy class action settlement on Sept. 15, 2015.

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7 thoughts onJudge Approves LinkedIn $1.25M Class Action Settlement

  1. Top Class Actions says:

    UPDATE: Instructions on how to file a claim for the LinkedIn user privacy class action settlement are now available! Click here or visit http://www.LinkedInClassActionSettlement.com for details.

  2. Kurt Barry says:

    I was on PREMIUM LinkedIn Member from 2009-2013. Please inform me of further developments.

  3. Doris Olden says:

    I am an Linkin member please keep me informed of the suit please.

  4. SVH says:

    I would like ti be kept informed about this please. I’ve been on LinkedIn since the 2000’s. How can I be kept informed?

  5. Willie E Burleson, Sr says:

    I am not sure if I was using Linkedin during 2012. How do I find out for sure?

  6. Pamela Tavares says:

    on linden, how do i get compensated for years

  7. Deborah Fogelman says:

    I was on linkedIn in 2012. How can I be compensated?

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