Meta’s $37.5 Million Privacy Class-Action Settlement Put on Hold

Meta’s proposed $37.5 million settlement of a privacy class action encountered a stumbling block when U.S. District Court Judge James Donato refused to grant preliminary approval. The lawsuit alleged that Meta collected users’ IP addresses and revealed general information about location in violation of Facebook’s privacy policy. The settlement would have allowed people who used Facebook between January 30, 2015, and April 18, 2018, to submit claims for a portion of the settlement fund. Around 70 million people would be eligible to submit claims. Among the reasons Judge Donato gave for denying preliminary approval were that the lawyers didn’t provide enough information about how they determined the number of people who would be eligible and that the $37.5 million wasn’t reasonable given the number affected. In April 2018, Facebook revised its policy. It didn’t stop collecting IP addresses, though, it just changed the policy. Judge Donato gave the lawyers until February 15, 2023, to revise their request for settlement approval, and directed them to address whether it would be appropriate to require Meta to make payments to public interest organizations, instead of individual users.