TLDR: A $725M Settlement has been reached between Defendant Facebook, Inc, and Plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit alleging Facebook shared or otherwise made accessible to third parties user data and data about users’ friends without permission of the users whose data was shared. You are included in this Settlement if you were a Facebook user in the United States between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022. Note it does not require you to currently be a Facebook user. To have CCC file a claim on your behalf, contact Omar at oreyes@certificateclearing.com or call 773-849-3121.

What is this all about?

Facebook has over the years faced numerous lawsuits brought on behalf of Facebook users who allege that Facebook (now Meta Platforms, Inc.) shared or otherwise made accessible to third parties user data and data about users’ friends without permission of the users whose data was shared. Further, Facebook allegedly did not sufficiently monitor and enforce third-party access or use of that data. This data is quite valuable and it must be protected.

After many years of litigating, Meta Inc has agreed to the largest data privacy settlement in company history and will pay $725 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit accusing the social media giant of allowing third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, to access users’ personal information. Meta did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement and an impressive 250 to 280 million Facebook users are covered under the settlement. Check out NBC’s coverage of the case.

How much will my payment be?

Per the settlement agreement, the answer will depend on how many Class Members submit valid claims and how long you were a user on Facebook during the Class Period. The Settlement Administrator will assign each approved Claimant one point for each month in which the Claimant had an activated Facebook account during the Class Period May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022, and note you do not need to currently have an active Facebook account.

After the deadline of August 25, 2023, the Settlement Administrator will add up all the points assigned to all the approved Claimants and divide the Settlement Amount by that number. The result will be the amount of the Net Settlement Fund available for each point. lastly, each approved Claimant will receive that per-point amount multiplied by the number of points they were assigned. The longer you had an active profile, the more you will receive from this settlement.

Now most of you want the straight number answer, but given we do not know how many people will file nor how long they had their Facebook profile for, we need to provide a range. On the lower end we project it could be $20-40, but on the upper end we could see $80-100; again the main factors reducing the payment amount is the number of people who file an eligible claim and how long they had an active profile for. This case is for the entire U.S. but typically less than 3% of eligible people file, so we always encourage folks to participate one way or another.

How do I recover my money?

Note you can always file a claim on your own on the settlement website: https://facebookuserprivacysettlement.com/#home , but CCC has been around for decades helping class members recover what they are owed. If you would like to avoid dealing with administrators yourself and would like us to help you file a claim, please reach out to Omar at oreyes@chicagoclearing.com, 773-849-3121.

Please note we are not the claims administrator for this settlement and you can always file a claim on your own at: https://www.facebookuserprivacysettlement.com/#submit-claim.