Facebook users who maintained active accounts between May 2007 and December 2022 are urged to take action and submit a claim before the upcoming deadline of August 25th, 2023. This is in relation to the $725 million data privacy settlement that has been established.
The compensation that individuals will receive is contingent upon the total number of claims submitted before the deadline. Potential payouts could vary, ranging from approximately $70 to $260. These sums might prove valuable, covering expenses such as monthly mobile or electricity bills.
Meta, the current owner of Facebook, found itself subjected to a hefty fine of $725 million in the previous year. This penalty arose from the revelation that the company had improperly utilized user data in connection with the Cambridge Analytica Political survey project. The unauthorized sharing of content led to Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s founder, agreeing to shoulder the responsibility for this breach and the subsequent fraudulent marketing activities that employed his company’s user data.
Upon collection of all claims before the specified deadline, a final verdict on the compensation will be delivered by the court’s legal proceedings on September 7th, 2023. These details were shared through an official statement posted on Facebook’s privacy website. It is worth noting that individuals who receive the compensation will forfeit any future rights to initiate privacy-related lawsuits against the social media platform or institute any similar legal actions against the company in the years ahead.
For those who might not be fully informed about the background, a pivotal moment occurred in 2018 when Facebook garnered widespread attention for sharing user data with the now-defunct Cambridge Analytica data consulting firm. This firm proceeded to exploit the collected profile information to gain insights into voter sentiments during the 2016 US presidential election, which ultimately favored the then-President, Donald Trump.
Given the magnitude of the breach of user trust, Mark Zuckerberg appeared before Congress to publicly apologize for the data scandal. He made commitments to fortify the protection of user data and pledged to compensate all those users who had been impacted by these events.
For those interested in pursuing a claim, an official claim form must be completed by August 25, 2023. This form represents an opportunity for affected individuals to seek redress for their experiences.
