Illinois Facebook users to receive second payment in biometric privacy lawsuit settlement

Illinois Facebook users who cashed checks they got last year as part of a $650 million biometric privacy lawsuit settlement will be getting a second check this month, for just over $30.

That’s because not all of those in Illinois who got the initial Facebook settlement payments of $397 last year cashed their checks. So the money from those uncashed checks is now being distributed to those who did cash theirs.

The second checks were issued at the end of February, according to attorney Jay Edelson, who sued Facebook in 2015.

The second payment will come from the approximately $43 million remaining in the settlement fund after the first round of payments went out to more than 1 million people last May, Edelson said.

“Not everybody cashed their checks, so, because there’s leftover money, there’s a second distribution,” Edelson said.

After legal expenses, the settlement fund totaled $550 million.

Nearly 1.4 million Facebook users filed valid claims in the class-action lawsuit, which said Facebook violated Illinois privacy law with a feature that suggested users tag people in their posted photos.

A federal judge in California approved the settlement in 2020. The deadline to file a claim was November 2020.