Facebook privacy settlement payouts overview:
- Who: More than 17.7 million people submitted valid claims in the Facebook data privacy settlement.
- Why: The $725 million settlement puts an end to claims that Meta — formerly known as Facebook — shared about 87 million Facebook users’ information with a third-party app developer, who in turn sold the data to Cambridge Analytica.
- Where: Nationwide.
In an eventful final approval hearing, a California judge said he was “blown away” by the 17.7 million claims filed in a $725 million Facebook privacy class action lawsuit settlement.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs told U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria that more than 17.7 million valid claims have been filed in the Facebook data privacy settlement — with several million more still needing to be processed.
According to plaintiff lawyers, each claimant can expect to receive around $30, based on the number of claims that have been filed. Judge Chhabria noted this amount is lower than expected but can be attributed to the unprecedented number of claims filed in the case.
“It’s because such an incredibly large number of people made claims in this case,” the judge said. “I was kind of blown away by how many people made claims.”
Facebook users had until Aug. 25, 2023, to file a claim in the Facebook class action lawsuit settlement; more than 28.6 million claims were filed. However, around 2 million of these claims are duplicates, while 8 million may be fraudulent. Even after these deductions, 17.7 million filed claims is a significant number.
Although the $725 million Facebook deal has attracted widespread media attention and millions of claims, not everyone is satisfied with the settlement. Objectors in the case claim the settlement total is too small based on the number of affected users and that the criteria for payouts laid out in the settlement agreement are unfair.
These objectors were each given two minutes to argue their cases to Judge Chhabria during the final approval hearing. Plaintiffs’ lawyers hit back against their arguments, saying the objectors ignore the significant risk of litigation when calculating the potential statutory reward of going to trial.
Class lawyers in the Facebook class action lawsuit need to tell Judge Chhabria the total they will seek in attorneys’ fees from the settlement — a sum that was left out in their motion for attorneys’ fees.
“We’re just not good at math,” one lawyer joked, calling the issue an “oversight” but stating that a 25% cut of the settlement would amount to almost $180.5 million.
The $725 million settlement puts an end to claims that Meta — formerly known as Facebook — shared the information of around 87 million Facebook users with a third-party app developer who then sold their information to Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica is a UK-based political consulting firm known for its role in former President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign. The firm filed for bankruptcy shortly after the Facebook data-sharing scandal was revealed.
Did you submit a claim in the Facebook privacy settlement? Let us know in the comments below.
The settlement class is represented by Lesley E. Weaver, Anne K. Davis, Matthew S. Melamed and Joshua D. Samra of Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP, and Derek W. Loeser, Cari Campen Laufenberg, David Ko, Adele A. Daniel, Benjamin Gould, Emma M. Wright, Daniel Mensher, Michael Woerner, Matthew Gerend, Christopher Springer and Eric Fierro of Keller Rohrback LLP.
The Facebook privacy class action lawsuit is In re: Facebook Inc. Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation, Case No. 3:18-md-02843, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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454 thoughts onHere’s how much the Facebook privacy class action settlement payouts could be
If any of us did what they did do you think we would be getting off by just paying $30 to the victims? Just like the didn’t care about when my account got hacked. The people or person switched my profile picture and I told them along with friends of mine and they said it didn’t go against the community standards and they did nothing about it. So basically people can do whatever they want on Facebook as long as it’s illegal and uts okay. But you say something or post something that the corporate people don’t like and you get put in Facebook jail and get go on Facebook until they deem its okay. Is there a Facebook jail they can go to??? But yet again I want to say thank you to the lawyers who have worked this case and brought it out into the public. I appreciate it regardless the money amount. You made a big shot company take on some responsibility for their wrong doing. Again Thank You!!!
I submitted a claim, never heard back from anyone.
Not sure if I did
Same here.
I just got restricted from using my messenger for 2 days for something ,not sure what,in one if my chats that was against community standards ,not Facebook,but on messenger is that not a invasion of privacy how would they no what I sent in my messanger messages even though I sent nothing bad
I submitted my paperwork. I haven’t received anything yet
I filed a claim also! Glad to get anything.
Add me
Hello would you please add me to this Facebook CLaim settlement ?
My entire Facebook with an email I used for many many years disappeared.. I definitely filed a claim
I filed a claim, so wrong what they have done with our information!
Please add me.
I FILED A CLAIM AND I AGREE WITH OTHER PEOPLE IT SHOULD BE MORE THAN $30 AS OUR INFOMATION WAS GIVEN OUT. IT TOTALLY NOT FAIR.
Hey everyone you should be happy with 30….I got $7.08 from national grid because they called me during covid asking me to pay my bill or I would get shut off