Any US resident with a Facebook account has been able to claim their share of a $725 million (approximately €661 million) privacy settlement at any time since May 2007.
Meta, the operator of social networks Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp, agreed to pay compensation to resolve the lawsuit alleging that the company allowed millions of personal information about its users to be provided to Cambridge Analytica, a company that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. in 2016.
It is not yet clear how much money users will receive, the Associated Press (AP) agency reported.
The more people who submit valid claims, the smaller each payment will be as the money has to be split between them.
To claim compensation, users can fill out a form and submit it online or print and mail it.
This case stemmed from 2018 revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a company associated with Trump political strategist Steve Bannon, paid a Facebook app maker to access personal information of approximately 87 million users of the platform.
This data was used to target American voters during the 2016 campaign, which culminated in Trump’s election as the 45th president.
The protests related to these revelations led to Facebook’s executive director and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg being questioned by US congressmen and resulted in requests for people to close their accounts on the social network.
Facebook’s growth has stalled as more and more people become addicted to rival apps like TikTok, though the social network still has more than 2 billion users worldwide, including about 250 million in the US.
Source: DN
