Residents of B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland and Labrador who were Facebook users between Jan. 1, 2011, and May 30, 2014, may be eligible for compensation as part of a $51 million class-action settlement. The settlement, approved by a British Columbia Supreme Court judge, involves 4.3 million users in the four provinces.
The settlement is related to Facebook’s use of profile pictures in sponsored stories, which is now defunct. It is important to note that this settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing by Facebook parent company Meta but rather a way to resolve claims without admitting liability.
To be eligible for compensation, a Facebook user must have been a resident of one of the four provinces during the specified period, used their real name on their account, and had a profile picture that included an identifiable self-image used in a sponsored story by Facebook.
It is challenging to determine if a user was featured in a sponsored story, so any user who meets the residency and profile criteria may be entitled to a payout. Most users can expect to receive between $20 and $55, with a maximum possible payout of $200.
Claimants will need to provide specific information when submitting a claim, including their name, contact details, Facebook username, approximate sign-up date on Facebook, and the email address associated with their account. The deadline to submit a claim is Aug. 20 at 5 p.m. PT.
The sponsored stories case originated from a lawsuit filed in 2017 by Deborah Louise Douez, who challenged Facebook’s policy of using a user’s name and photo in ads based on their “Like” on the platform. The case has been ongoing since 2012 when Douez’s photo appeared in an endorsement for an obstacle course race company without her consent.
This article was contributed to by The Canadian Press.
