Millions of Facebook users are receiving their share of a landmark $725 million class-action settlement for violation of privacy that allegedly involved improper sharing of their personal information with several third parties, including Cambridge Analytica. Payments, having recently started being distributed in early September 2025 after years of litigation and appeals, will continue to be made in tranches over the next ten weeks.
History of the settlement
Preliminary approval for the settlement agreement was given in 2023 in connection with several lawsuits alleging that Facebook violated user privacy by inappropriately sharing data without consent. To avoid further expenses and possible risks, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, agreed to pay $725 million.
Thereafter, the deduction of attorneys’ fees-somewhere around $181 million-and administration costs would be made from this settlement fund, and the remaining funds would be channeled toward disbursing eligible claimants.
Eligibility and claims timeline
To qualify, you needed to have had a Facebook account in the U.S. at any time from May 24, 2007, to December 22, 2022, and submit a valid claim by August 2023. Around 28 million claims were filed, of which at least 17 million passed approval for payment. Anyone who did not file on time is out of luck, even if they have a history of an account.
How payouts are calculated
The payout amounts will be calculated on a simple point system giving one point for every month that an approved claimant maintained an active Facebook account during the eligibility period. Therefore, someone with 60 months of activity on the account will receive 60 points, while someone with activity for the full 15 years (180 months) will get 180 points.
The amount that is due to be paid to claimants will be calculated by dividing the net settlement fund (after lawyers’ fees & administration costs) by the total number of points allocated to all approved claims. Therefore, each claimant’s payment would be his/her total points multiplied by the per-point value. Lawyers are estimating that the median payout would lie closer to $30, given a very high number of approved claims, therefore, diluting the fund.
Disbursements schedule and ways to receive your money
Disbursements were confirmed to have commenced on September 3 by Angeion, the claims administrator appointed by the court. The disbursement will occur weekly or every two weeks for approximately ten weeks. The approved claimants will get an email three to four days before their payment is sent out, so make sure to check your spam folder.
While filing the claims, the claimants chose from one of the payment options which included:
- Payment through bank transfer.
- Receiving payment through PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle.
- Claimants will receive a prepaid Mastercard through mail.
- Check through U.S. mail.
What To expect
While the massive figure on the settlement is so big for the recipients, the payments made to individual recipients would be small. With around 17 million approved claims, the median expected payout is set for between $25-$30. Long-term users with higher number of points, especially those users active for the majority of these 15 years that were eligible to file an account, may be getting slightly larger amounts whereas smaller payments will be incurred by those users with shorter account histories.
Eight named plaintiffs who represented the class will receive $15,000 each, as sanctioned by the court; lawyers’ fees will, in contrast, account for a substantial portion of the settlement, demonstrating the enormity of the legal work needed to close this case.
Maximizing your chances and tips
For eligible claimants who have not yet received notification, they should:
- Check their claim’s status on the settlement portal using claim information for claim approval.
- Confirm that they have updated payment method information.
- Keep monitoring the provided email address for any correspondence from “[email protected]”.
Respond quickly to email notifications to avoid extended delays or returned payments. If a claimant fails to notice the notification, there could be an inevitable delay in processing or even forfeiture of the settlement check.
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