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Follow us on FacebookFacebook offers to pay users 54 cents in movement tracking case
@ 2022/08/25$37.5 million does not look so big now
Meta has offered to pay $37.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit, which claimed Facebook illegally harvested location data even when users denied consent.
However, while $37.5 million seems like a princely sum, Facebook does not have to admit it did anything wrong and users would just get 53 cents.
The problem is that if Facebook did what the class action claims then it was pretty nasty. Plaintiffs said they had turned off location tracking for the Facebook app downloaded on their iOS and Android smartphones, but were shocked to find the company had repeatedly recorded their whereabouts and logged their specific latitude and longitude coordinates anyway.
The excitment happened in 2018. Brendan Lundy and Mariah Watkins discovered the data when they requested a copy of their personal records held by Facebook. The information was used to send users targeted ads, the lawsuit alleged.
"Facebook accessed and stored user' detailed location information-through their devices' location services – even when they did not affirmatively agree to, or expressly opt out of, Facebook accessing and storing their location data," the original complaint claimed.
Meta has offered to pay $37.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit, which claimed Facebook illegally harvested location data even when users denied consent.
However, while $37.5 million seems like a princely sum, Facebook does not have to admit it did anything wrong and users would just get 53 cents.
The problem is that if Facebook did what the class action claims then it was pretty nasty. Plaintiffs said they had turned off location tracking for the Facebook app downloaded on their iOS and Android smartphones, but were shocked to find the company had repeatedly recorded their whereabouts and logged their specific latitude and longitude coordinates anyway.
The excitment happened in 2018. Brendan Lundy and Mariah Watkins discovered the data when they requested a copy of their personal records held by Facebook. The information was used to send users targeted ads, the lawsuit alleged.
"Facebook accessed and stored user' detailed location information-through their devices' location services – even when they did not affirmatively agree to, or expressly opt out of, Facebook accessing and storing their location data," the original complaint claimed.
