Facebook users filing to secure a part of the company’s $725 million settlement will need to provide a key piece of information when submitting their claims: their Facebook usernames.
When filing a claim, individuals have to provide basic information like their full names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers. In addition, they will also have to submit their Facebook username.
A Facebook user can easily access their username by visiting their profile and checking the URL. It will usually go something like “facebook.com/XXX.” The “XXX” is your Facebook username.
Another way is to open up Facebook on a desktop. Click the “Account” option, then “Settings and Privacy,” and finally the “Settings” option. Click on “Username” and it should now be visible.
For users who have more than one Meta account like a Facebook and an Instagram account, they will be taken to a page called the “Meta Accounts Center.” On the page, click “See more in Accounts Center,” then, “Profiles,” “Select your Facebook profile,” and then “Username.”
For mobile users, the steps are a bit different. They will need to tap on the “Menu” option, then tap the display name shown at the top of the screen, and finally tap “…” located next to “Edit Profile.” Your username should be visible under the “Your Profile Link” at the end of the URL.
Now, some Facebook users may not have a username. Such users simply have to enter the basic information associated with their Facebook account.
In order to be eligible for the claim, a person should have resided in the United States between May 24, 2007, and Dec. 22, 2022, and must have been a Facebook user at any time during this period.
They also need to specify whether the claim is for “a current account, a deleted account or a combination of both.”
“If your Claim Form is incomplete or missing information, the Settlement Administrator may contact you for additional information. If you do not respond by the deadline provided by the Settlement Administrator for you to supply any such additional information, your claim will not be processed, and you will waive your right to receive money under the Settlement,” says the settlement website.
Claim Amounts
It is not yet clear how much each user is going to get from the $725 million settlement. In an interview with The Hill, Scott Dodson, a distinguished professor of law at University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, and the director of the Center for Litigation and Courts, said that “the actual figure that will be distributed to class members is going to be smaller than that. It’ll be significantly smaller than that.”The $725 million is not going to be directly distributed to claimants. Instead, a lawyer’s fee will initially be deducted. This can go up to $181.25 million, which brings down the settlement amount to $543.75 million.
Next, an administrative fee will be deducted to meet the cost of the administration appointed by the court to carry out the settlement process. This can take a few million or tens of millions of dollars, Mr. Dodson said. Then, the eight plaintiffs in the case will be paid $120,000.
Once all fees and other amounts are deducted, the remaining funds will not be distributed to all claimants equally. Instead, the claim amount will depend on the number of months a claimant had an active Facebook account between May 2007 and December 2022.
Mr. Dodson estimates that many people will receive less than $100 while some at the higher end will receive triple-digit amounts.
Settlement Court Decision
The settlement has not been finalized. After the Aug. 25 claim submission deadline, a final settlement hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 1, 2023. The court needs to approve the settlement. There could also be appeals, which would delay the settlement.“It is always uncertain whether appeals will be filed and, if so, how long it will take to resolve them. Settlement payments will be distributed as soon as possible if the Court grants Final Approval of the Settlement and after any appeals are resolved,” says the settlement website.
Facebook decided on a $725 million settlement in a case that sprang from the 2018 reports that Cambridge Analytica had accessed the personal Facebook information of around 87 million users by paying a Facebook app developer. The collected data were then used for targeting American voters during the 2016 election.
Meta denied allegations in the suit, but still agreed on a settlement as it decided this course of action was in the best interest of the shareholders and the community.
