Facebook’s $725M settlement could put money in your pocket

If you’ve had a Facebook account and used it in the U.S. between 2007 and 2022, you may be able to cash in on a class action settlement worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

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The class action lawsuit alleged that the Meta-owned social media juggernaut shared users’ data without their consent. The sharing came to light in 2018, when data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica used nearly 87 million users’ data compiled through a personality quiz app without consent from users that the data would be shared with a third party and then didn’t monitor how that information was used, The Washington Post reported.

Cambridge Analytica worked with former President Donald Trump on his 2016 presidential campaign, USA Today reported. The information gathered was used by his campaign to target voters, the newspaper reported.

Meta denied wrongdoing but settled the case in December. The settlement was preliminarily approved by a judge last month, with a final hearing in September.

Now users can apply to get their portion of the $725 million settlement, though the exact amount each person will get has not yet been determined and will depend on various fees, how many claims are submitted and how long the claimant was on Facebook during the period in question.

The eight named plaintiffs could get up to $15,000 each, then up to 25% of the total settlement will go to fees, leaving the rest to go to the tens of millions of people who are expected to file claims, The Washington Post reported.

It is estimated that between 250 million to 280 million people could be eligible to file a claim, USA Today reported.

To file your claim, you must have had an account sometime between May 2007 and December 2022. Then you should head to the class action website and file a claim either online or via mail before 11:59 p.m. PT on Aug. 25. You can also opt out from the class action suit. That deadline is July 26.

Payments will be issued after the judge gives final approval and after all appeals are resolved, USA Today reported.