$725 Million Facebook User Data Privacy Class Action Settlement

What is the Facebook Data Privacy Settlement and How Do I File a Claim?

A $725 million class action lawsuit has been settled with Facebook, re-branded to Meta Platforms, Inc. As of April 2023, many users are reporting receiving a notification when logging in their Facebook accounts notifying them about the new Facebook privacy class action settlement and are wondering if it is real. In this article we’ll discuss how Facebook users can qualify to earn cash in the $725,000,000 settlement. Millions of Facebook users have been receiving the following notification directly from Meta and Facebook about the 2023 data privacy class action, and yes, the notification is legitimate:

A History of Facebook Class Action Settlements

The Meta Platforms class action lawsuit revolved around allegations that Facebook (Meta Platforms, Inc.) shared troves of user data with third parties without getting appropriate permissions from Facebook users. Additionally, the class action attorneys in the lawsuit made arguments that Facebook did not properly monitor third party use of Facebook user data. There were several lawsuit combined into one umbrella class action. The original lawsuits over this Facebook data infringement of privacy rights was consolidated into a large $725,000,000 class action settlement, under one umbrella as a single case: Facebook, Inc. Consumer privacy User Profile Litigation. These numerous lawsuits brought to the Court’s attention that Facebook was sharing user data with third parties. Some of the listed third parties included:

• Third-Party App Developers,
• Facebook or Meta Business Partners,
• Meta Advertisers,
• Data Brokers,
• Whitelisted Parties

The Meta settlement is the single largest data privacy class action in U.S. history, with the aim of resolving investigations and lawsuits stemming from the 2016 election scandal over Facebook’s sharing of over 87 million users’ data with a third-party called Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica was revealed to be connected with Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign. According to class action attorneys in the Facebook case, Cambridge Analytica used user data without their permission in order to harvest and profile voters to target and influence the 2016 presidential election in Donald Trump’s favor. In effect, Facebook’s third-party data harvesting on behalf of a political consultancy is at the center of the investigations and class action lawsuits into Facebook’s conduct when it comes to user data governance. Cambridge Analytica has been shuttered since the scandal broke.

Meta Platforms, Inc. has chosen to settle the $725 Million user data privacy class action, but in doing so has not accepted any liability for its actions or admitted to any wrongdoing. The Court has also not made any judgment or decision as to the righteousness of Facebook’s actions with user data and its sharing of private user data with numerous third parties. Facebook expressed that the settlement is in the best interest of Meta’s community, as well as its shareholders of its nearly $600 Billion evaluation stock price as of April 2023.