Facebook's $725 million privacy settlement is now sending out payments

If you filed a claim in Facebook's $725 million privacy settlement, you could get a payment within weeks, according to the settlement's administrator.

Millions of consumers who used Facebook over a 15-year period were eligible to file a claim back in 2023, with the settlement stemming from multiple lawsuits filed against the social media platform by users who claimed the company improperly shared their information with third-party sources such as advertisers and data brokers.

The litigation was sparked by Facebook's privacy scandal in 2018 with Cambridge Analytica, which scraped user data from the site as part of an effort to profile voters. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has denied any liability or wrongdoing under the settlement.

Here's what to know about the payments.

People who have been approved for a payment will receive an email from "Facebook User Privacy Settlement Administrator." The email address is [email protected].

The subject of the email is: Facebook User Privacy Settlement – Settlement and Distribution Status Update. The emails state that your claim has been approved, and includes your claim ID number.

The claim administrator says the company started sending out the payments in September, and that they will continue to be issued over the next the 10 weeks.

"You will receive an additional email notice approximately 3-4 days before your settlement payment is issued. Please continue to check your email during this time period," read an email sent to an approved claimant on Sept. 9.

The settlement administrator's website doesn't specify how much each claimant will receive, but Facebook users will receive a portion of the $725 million after administrative costs and lawyers' fees are paid out.

The payments are also based on how many people filed claims, as well as how long each claimant was using Facebook during the 15-year period covered by the settlement.

Each claimant receives one "allocation point" for each month they had an "activated" Facebook account between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022. The settlement administrator adds up all the points assigned to all eligible claimants and then divides the net settlement amount by that number.

Because the payments are based on the number of points assigned to each claimant, people who were on Facebook for shorter periods of time are likely to receive a lower settlement amount.