Residents who received a surprise electronic payment of $36.29 from accounting firm MNP over the last week should feel secure the minor windfall is likely legitimate.
The payment, which was deposited directly into some accounts, is the share of the proceeds of a class action lawsuit filed against Facebook over alleged privacy breaches.
Facebook has paid out $51 million after the company settled a lawsuit in January last year. The lawsuit claimed Facebook used people’s photos without their consent as part of an advertising tool called sponsored stories.
According to documents from MNP, the court-appointed claims administrator of the settlement, the stories “associated an advertiser’s name or identifiable mark with a Facebook user who had performed certain social actions in connection with the advertiser, such as clicking a ‘like’ button concerning the advertiser’s product or service.”
The suit claimed using those names and portraits in the ads without consent was in violation of the Privacy Acts of British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
The lawsuit was brought forward in 2012 and the court appointed Deborah Douez as the representative plaintiff.
MNP said as many as 4.3 million people in the four affected provinces are eligible for a payment.
Because so many Facebook users were featured in at least one sponsored story between Jan. 1, 2011 to May 30, 2014, MNP has said it is presumed any person who was a resident of one of the four provinces, and who was a Facebook user and used their real name, or had a profile picture that included an identifiable self-image, would be entitled to share in the funds.
The settlement is a compromise of disputed claims and is not an admission of liability by Meta Inc., which owns Facebook, MNP said.
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