Second Batch of Facebook User Privacy Settlement Payments Have Begun, but You Still Won’t Get Rich

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.

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.

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.