WASHINGTON DC – APRIL 11. Mark Zuckerberg is the co-founder and Chairman of Facebook. He also testifies to Congress. … [+]
Facebook has a lot of frauds, in case you didn’t know.
There are many examples of this: misleading information, factual mistakes, sneaky ads, etc. It’s all part of the social media landscape.
Most of us are aware of one particular scam, and some of us may have been fooled.
Cambridge Analytica was a totally unknown firm that ran an anonymous survey, but it was really more like a campaign. A class-action suit was filed and a settlement reached after people noticed.
This is your chance to shine.
You can claim if you used Facebook from 2007 until 2022. You can find the form here. There’s no catch, other than the fact that you must register for the settlement by August 25. After that, there’s very little chance you can make any claim.
It is necessary to enter the email address associated with your account. It took me forever to find mine, but the trick is to click your profile photo in the upper right corner of your browser, then go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Meta Accounts Center > Personal details > Contact Info. There’s not much else to add to the form, and very little information about what comes next.
This type of massive settlement only comes up once in a while, and if it does, it’s rare that so many people would be able to make a claim.
There’s also a wide window for when you can claim you were a user, but the form mentions that you could be a user or someone who had an account that you deleted since then. There’s no way to tell how many people will be part of the settlement, how much money you would receive, or even any details about timing. You can register your PayPal or bank account to receive funds.
Settlement included massive payouts to FTC ($5 billion) and SEC ($100 million).
As a result of this lawsuit and settlement, many Facebook members began to question whether or not they want to continue using a platform that permits something as scandalous. The business model that requires users to accept ads, compromise their security and use free platforms has been scrutinized more than ever in recent years.
This new claim will it make any difference?
I can’t say for sure. Sometimes I believe that the average Facebook user doesn’t know about any issues. Asking friends and family recently about this topic, most said they don’t care and don’t pay attention to it.
Perhaps they’ll do it now.
