Second Batch of Facebook Settlement Payments Have Begun

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Edward C. Baig,

Updated June 10, 2026

AARP

En español

Updated June 10, 2026

A second payment from the $725 million that Facebook parent Meta has agreed to shell out to settle a now eight-year-old class action privacy lawsuit is beginning to reach eligible Facebook users this week. It follows the initial payments that were distributed in September.

Notifications just started going out by email, informing eligible claimants of the latest payment, which is being made from uncashed funds. Such payments will roll out over the next four weeks.

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Emails come from the address donotreply@facebookuserprivacysettlement.com and include the claim ID that folks were issued when submitting their claim. Those who are eligible will receive the email three to four days before a payment is made.

But don’t book your dream vacation just yet. Payments are small.

This writer got $6.61 on top of the $34.69 paid in September. The distribution is in line with similar payouts issued to some of my AARP colleagues.

Payments will be made by direct deposit to your bank account, or via PayPal, Venmo or a prepaid Mastercard, depending on what you chose on the mail-in or online claims forms, which had a submission deadline of Aug 25, 2023.

Some people who submitted a claim before that deadline, including this writer, were subsequently rejected for reasons that were not adequately explained. I successfully appealed and received payments.

Other claims were thrown out as duplicates or flagged as potentially fraudulent.

The settlement relates to Facebook user data that was improperly shared with other companies. Those eligible for a share of the settlement were among the millions of U.S. account holders on the world’s largest social network between May 24, 2007, and Dec. 22, 2022.

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Class action attorney Danny Karon of Cleveland, owner of the Your Lovable Lawyer consumer website, advised people at the time to file their claims since it’s “found money. Never mind how much or how little you’ll get. The lawyers did a good job. Go, take what they got for you.”

Some 28 million people heeded that advice.

You are not getting a windfall

The amount of money you could get depends on not only how many people filed claims but also the amount of time you were on Facebook during the “class period,” as well as the size of legal and administrative fees.

Authorized claimants were issued one point for each month in which they had an active Facebook account during the class period. The points you received determined your share of the total net settlement.

According to reporting by The Hill, citing court documents, the smallest possible initial payment was $4.89, and the maximum was $38.36. The average payment of around $29 was not far off earlier estimates.

Facebook had more than 240 million U.S. users in 2022. All were eligible, but only those who filed will see any money.

Why is this happening?

The backstory involves a British political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, which worked with President Donald Trump on his 2016 campaign.

The firm was able to obtain private Facebook user data that could help build voter profiles. In 2018, the same year the class action litigation was filed, Facebook conceded that as many as 87 million user profiles may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

What is a class action?

The legal procedure allows one or a small number of plaintiffs to pursue a case on behalf of a larger group or class of people. As part of this particular settlement, Meta admitted no wrongdoing.

The simplest way people could file a claim was to visit the website facebookuserprivacysettlement.com and submit an online claim. You can still visit that site for more details on your settlement payment.

During the submission process, people were asked to enter their name, postal address, Facebook username and email address or addresses associated with their Facebook account, but never their Social Security number. They could submit only a single claim on their own behalf, though family members with accounts could separately file their own claims. Having multiple Facebook accounts at the same time was not double-counted.

Worth mentioning: Beware of scammers masquerading as legal beagles who claim they can help you get your piece of a class action settlement. It’s a ruse.

This story, originally published April 21, 2023, has been updated to reflect the latest settlement payments. 

The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.

Edward C. Baig covers technology and other consumer topics. He previously worked for USA Today, BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report and Fortune. He is the author of Macs for Dummies and coauthor of iPhone for Dummies and iPad for Dummies. Follow him on LinkedIn, Threads and X (formerly known as Twitter).                   

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