Class Action Lawsuit Alleging Facebook Illegally Collected Users’ Location Data Reassigned to District Judge [UPDATE]
by Erin Shaak
Last Updated on June 6, 2023
Lundy et al v. Facebook Inc. et al
Filed: November 8, 2018 ◆§ 4:18cv6793
A class action filed over Facebook's allegedly secret location tracking has been reassigned from a magistrate judge to a California district court judge.
June 6, 2023 – Facebook Location Tracking Settlement Website Is Live
The official settlement website for the lawsuit detailed on this page is up and running and can be found at www.facebooklocationsettlement.com.
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You can file a claim if you were a Facebook user in the United States whose iOS or Android Location Services setting for the Facebook app was turned off at any point between January 30, 2015 and April 18, 2018.
You must submit a claim to receive a share of the $37.5 settlement fund. You can file a claim online here or print a paper form here and submit it by mail to the settlement administrator. The deadline to file a claim for a settlement payment is August 11, 2023.
The amount of your payment will depend on the number of claimants, as the settlement fund will be divided equally among class members who submit valid claims. However, if the court finds that the number of claims makes it “economically or administratively infeasible” to issue payment to class members, the funds will instead go to court-approved non-profit organizations.
A hearing is set for October 19 to determine whether the court will grant the settlement final approval.
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May 2, 2023 – Facebook Location Data Tracking Settlement Preliminarily Approved by Court
United States District Judge James Donato has granted preliminary approval to the $37.5 million Facebook location data tracking settlement detailed below, meaning consumers are one step closer to receiving compensation.
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The settlement covers U.S. residents who used Facebook between January 30, 2015 and April 18, 2018 and whose iOS or Android location services setting for the Facebook app was turned off at any point during that period but whose location details were “inferred” by Facebook via their devices’ IP addresses.
The official settlement website can be found at https://www.facebooklocationsettlement.com/. Consumers covered by the deal are urged to check back with the site often as the period in which to file claims for compensation will soon open.
Those who wish to receive cash payment will be required to submit a claim form online or by mail. Please be advised that class members who receive a physical check from the settlement must cash it within 90 days of receipt.
Judge Donato’s nine-page preliminary approval order, submitted on April 26, 2023, can be found here.
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August 24, 2022 – Approval Sought for $37.5 Million Settlement Over Meta Location Tracking
The plaintiffs in the proposed class action detailed on this page have asked the court to preliminarily approve a $37.5 million settlement with Meta Platforms, the remaining defendant in a case initially filed against Facebook, Google, Alphabet and Apple.
If approved, the settlement would cover all United States residents who used Facebook between January 30, 2015 and April 18, 2018 and whose iOS or Android location services setting for the Facebook app was turned off but whose location information was tracked by Facebook via the individual’s IP address.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys estimate that the proposed $37.5 million represents a little more than half of what covered Facebook users—approximately 70 million people, according to court documents—could have expected to recover had they risked taking the case to trial.
"While litigation presents serious risks at many stages, not to mention substantial expense and delay without any guarantee of additional benefit to the settlement class, the settlement provides immediate and substantial benefits to settlement class members: settlement class members will receive a pro rata share of the settlement fund in the form of a cash payment," counsel told the court.
At this juncture, it is unclear how much Facebook users who submit valid claims can receive from the settlement as payments will increase or decrease depending on the number of people who participate.
ClassAction.org will update this page if and when the case receives preliminary approval from the court and the official settlement website goes live, allowing Facebook users to file claims online.
Don’t miss out on settlement news like this. Sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.
A proposed class action filed in early November against Facebook, Google, Google’s parent company, and Apple has recently been reassigned from a magistrate judge to a California district court judge. The case centers on Facebook’s allegedly secret location tracking of mobile phone and tablet users, namely those who “have never explicitly opted in, or specifically opted out of” the embattled social platform’s location tracking. The 44-page lawsuit outright claims Google and Apple, through “various misrepresentations and omissions,” effectively aided and abetted Facebook in surreptitiously tracking its users.
Facebook, according to the lawsuit, assures users that it will not access or store their location information so long as they set the company’s mobile app “Location History” to “off.” The two named plaintiffs argue that despite Facebook’s representations, the company had secretly collected “voluminous location data” about them even though they had turned off the location history setting.
The suit says that after using Facebook’s “Download Your Information” feature, one of the plaintiffs found hidden in the “security_and_login_information” folder specific data about where he had been on certain dates and at certain times, “even down to the road he frequently cycles on.” As for Google and Apple’s roles in the matter, the lawsuit chastises the companies for their allegedly misleading representations of their respective operating systems’ security and data sharing. Both Google and Apple, according to the case, represented to Android and iOS users that Facebook would be unable to access and store their information absent an explicit opt-in to the app’s location tracking feature.
Contrary to these representations, the suit says, Facebook collected and utilized users’ location data without their consent to generate “millions of dollars” in advertising revenue.
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