Facebook: $90 million in damages for illegal tracking

For years, Facebook tracked its users without their consent not only on its own pages, but also on countless others. Meta, the company behind the social network, is now paying $90 million in damages for this in the US.

Tracking via Like button

Facebook provides website operators with a Like button, which is attractive to them in that the reach of their own posts can be increased, sometimes drastically, without much additional effort: If users click on the Like button, this interaction is also recorded on Facebook – and other people can see the liked post. But the Like buttons also serve another purpose: The graphics and codes are loaded directly from Facebook’s servers, which means that users who were on pages with an embedded Like button could be tracked – without having to contact Facebook directly or agree to the tracking. Facebook was thus able to collect more accurate personal data, which in turn translated into higher advertising prices. However, the practice was not legal.

$90 million in damages

In the U.S., there have been several class action lawsuits against this practice in the past, some of which were dismissed, but then reinstated. Now the company has reached a settlement with the plaintiffs: 90 million US dollars will be paid out to those affected. However, no one will get rich in the process, as an estimated 126 million people used Facebook in the U.S. between April 22, 2010 and September 26, 2011, the period covered by the lawsuits. All of these people are now eligible to make claims. In addition, there are costs for lawyers amounting to 26 million US dollars as well as the costs incurred for sending checks.

In large class actions in the USA, a median of four to five percent of those entitled come forward. If $60 million remains after all costs are deducted and five percent of those eligible come forward, that leaves about $9.52 per person. If one percent of those eligible come forward – a law professor referenced by Meta states that on average, less than 1.5 percent of those eligible come forward in very large class actions – that leaves about $47.61 in that case.