Facebook users who received an email last weekend about a class-action lawsuit may have a chance to make $10. Many users thought it was a hoax and pushed the delete button, but Facebook is in fact facing a lawsuit.
In the recent case, Angel Fraley v. Facebook, Inc, the social media giant is being called out for unlawfully using profile pictures, photographs, likenesses and identities of Facebook users to advertise through Sponsored Stories without their consent. Sponsored Stories, as defined by the proposed settlement, “are a form of advertising that typically contain posts which appeared on facebook.com about or from a Facebook user or entity that a business, organization, or individual has paid to promote…”
Twenty-year-old Sarah Irving said she received the email from Facebook, which read “you may have been featured in a Sponsored Story on Facebook prior to December 3, 2012.”
“It went straight to the trash,” Irving said.
After being briefed that this email was not a scam, she said she did feel uneasy that Facebook could have used her images.
“My Facebook has always been completely private, so it’s a little disturbing that (my information) could be out there just floating,” Irving said.
The lawsuit is asking Facebook to put $20 million into a fund to pay each user whose information was used unlawfully. If the user decides to go forth with the claim, they may receive $10 or less. But, according to the proposed settlement, if too many people make claims, the money will go toward not-for-profit organizations that conduct educational outreach and research about using social media technology safely.
Associate art director at Digitas in Boston, Lessa Chung, works in the field of social media every day. She said she received the email as well and put it directly in the trash.
“I guess I’m just a bit jaded by social media privacy, or lack thereof,” Chung said. “It’s just part of what you put out there.”
As of now, neither Chung nor Irving plan on actually filling out the claim to receive $10.
To find out more information about the lawsuit, go to that is a site created by the law firm handling the case: fraleyfacebooksettlement.com.
