Meta users have approximately four weeks to submit their applications for their part of the $725 million settlement for Facebook privacy violations. The December 2022 settlement, said to be the greatest class action settlement of its kind, is the result of the class action suit brought on by Keller Rohrback.
Facebook users have just under a month left to stake their claim in the $725 million settlement over the social network's alleged privacy violations, which stem from the Cambridge Analytica scandal that impacted U.S. politics and Silicon Valley. The agreement, made in December 2022, was deemed the largest of its kind in a class action suit, as stated by Keller Rohrback, the law firm that brought the case forward. This finalized the litigation surrounding Facebook's actions in illicitly providing data to a data consultancy firm utilized by Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Meta, Facebook's parent company, experienced a significant hit to their finances from the debacle, to the tune of nearly $5.9 billion. This included the $725 million settlement as well as a record $5 billion penalty from the Federal Trade Commission and an additional $100 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission.Anyone who had an active Facebook account in the U.S. between May 2007 and December 2022, must submit a claim on or before Aug. 25. The ultimate amount each person receives will be determined by the number of claims submitted and the amount of time each user had a Facebook account.To file a claim, Facebook users should go to Facebookuserprivacysettlement.com and provide their name, address, and e-mail address, and confirm that they lived in the United States and were active on the platform between the given years.After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook underwent an overhaul and changed its name to Meta, eventually settling the class action suit in 2022. Since then, the company has expanded into the metaverse with newly developed hardware, such as the Quest 3 set for launch this fall, and the Llama 2 large language artificial intelligence model. Reels was also established to compete with TikTok, and more recently Threads to rival Twitter.Mark Zuckerberg was forced to offer an apology for the scandal in Congress and in full-page advertisements. "I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time. We're now taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again," he stated.The $725 million settlement was not an admission of guilt for the breach.
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