Facebook users have until August to claim their share of a $725 million class-action settlement of a lawsuit alleging privacy violations by the social media company, a new website reveals.
The lawsuit was prompted in 2018 after Facebook disclosed information of 87 million users was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.
People who had an active U.S. Facebook account between May 2007 and Dec. 2022 have until Aug. 25 to enter a claim. Individual settlement payments haven’t yet been established because payouts depend on how many users submit claims and how long each user maintained a Facebook account.
Cambridge Analytica was a British political consultancy used by the presidential campaign of Donald Trump and by Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, among others.
The breach forced Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to testify before Congress and to take out full-page ads where he apologized for the missteps. “I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time. We’re now taking steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” Zuckerberg said.
Facebook rebranded itself as Meta in 2021 and settled the class action suit the following year.
The company did not admit wrongdoing. “We pursued a settlement as it’s in the best interest of our community and shareholders,” a company spokesperson said at the time.
Facebook users can make a claim by visiting Facebookuserprivacysettlement.com and entering their name, address, email address and confirming they lived in the U.S. and were active on Facebook between the aforementioned dates.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.