By Sana Fazili
Facebook users with an active account in the US between May 2007 and December 2022 can now claim their share of $725 million lawsuit settlement. The case dates back to 2018 when it was reported that Facebook violated privacy by sharing data of around 87 million users with Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported former US president Donald Trump in 2016 presidential elections.
The users can file their claim till August 25, 2023. However, it is not yet clear how much amount of the money each user will get, AP reported.
Facebook parent Meta in December 2022 agreed to pay $725 million in the lawsuit which claimed that the social media giant had violated privacy and given user data to third parties without the users' consent.
Though Meta agreed to settle the class-action, it did not confess to any violations. "We pursued a settlement as it's in the best interest of our community and shareholders," a CNBC report quoted a Meta spokesperson as saying.
Here is all you need to know about the lawsuit settlement and claiming the share:
How to claim your share
1. Go to Facebookuserprivacysettlement.com
2. Full up the form with your name, address, contact details. Confirm that you lived in the US and were active on Facebook between May 2007 to December 2022.
What was the lawsuit?
In 2018, it came to light that Facebook had improperly given access to user data to Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm founded in 2013 with its headquarters in London.
The data firm was "principally" owned by right-wing donor Robert Mercer, The New York Times reported. It found that Trump's aide Stephen K Bannon was a board member and the data firm got access to user data. The company had been running Trump's digital campaigns.
"We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people's profiles. And built models to exploit what we know about them and target their inner demons. That was the basis the entire company was built on," a former Cambridge Analytica employe and whistleblower Christopher Wylie told the Observer after the case came to light.
The Guardian reported that the data was collected through an app built by an academician named Aleksandr Kogan. The app, he said, was built for academic research. The app collected data from users as well as their friends on Facebook.
Thousands of people took the personality test on Facebook and thus their data was collected for "academic use".
In April 2018, Facebook said that data of 87 million users was shared improperly with Cambridge Analytica. Britain's Chanel 4 through a sting operation reported that Cambridge Analytica was using honey traps, fake news and former spies to determine the outcome of elections.
