Facebook agrees to settle class action suit of 2011 for $90 million

If you are a citizen of the United States of America and used Facebook between April 22, 2010, and Sept. 25, 2011, by visiting pages with a Facebook-like button, then there is a chance you may be eligible for settlement money out of a class action suit against Facebook.

A lawsuit (Case No. 5:12-MD-02314-EJD ) got filed against Facebook in 2011 in which petitioners alleged that Facebook tracked activities on websites unrelated to Facebook. Even when they were signed out of their Facebook accounts, cookies were installed on the computers of users who did the tracking for Facebook.

The lawsuit got filed in district court in the state of California with charges of violating the Federal Wiretap Act, the Stored Electronic Communications Act and the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Now, after almost 11 years of legal battle, the district court in California has given preprimary approval for a 90 million dollar class action settlement.

According to a release from law firm DiCello Levitt Gutzler, if approved, this settlement would be the seventh-largest data privacy class action settlement ever.

Even though Facebook explained, it took necessary measures to avoid any further issues by inactivating cookies when no person gets logged out from their account.

According to court filings, Meta Platforms Inc (parent company of the Facebook app) has agreed to provide 90 million dollars as a settlement.

Even though the company was ready to provide a settlement, it vehemently opposed narratives that Facebook breached the private data of users by monetising it. The company also stated it does not have any liability whatsoever in the alleged privacy breach.

The administrator of the claim, Angeion has already begun to email members of the class suit and the process is expected to take at least 15 days.

If you haven’t received any message or email but still believe that you are eligible for the claim, you can apply for the dame through a website – Home | Facebook Internet Tracking Litigation (fbinternettrackingsettlement.com)

According to the website, the last date to submit a claim is September 22, 2022. You can also o[pt out before September 12, 2022. If you have any objections against the settlement and would like the court to have a hearing, you can apply for the same before September 12, 2022.

The court has scheduled a final approval hearing on Oct. 27, 2022, in San Jose, California, where it will consider whether the $90 million settlement is “fair, reasonable, and adequate.”

This is not the first time Facebook has come under lawsuits and charges in name of privacy. Ever since it got famous, Facebook is accused of missing data of their users to make financial leverage and growth. They were also accused of withholding data, storing deleted data and trying to use data to track each user.