7 ms·
FB users in USA: ~250M, if half of them end up claiming then its $6/person (before expenses, lawyer fees etc.) In these kind of cases, only lawyers make a wind
by achow 3y ago
FB users in USA: ~250M, if half of them end up claiming then its $6/person (before expenses, lawyer fees etc.)
In these kind of cases, only lawyers make a windfall.
- walrus01 3y agopeople who got checks from the equifax data breach also got about $6 or $7 each person.
- Eumenes 3y agoI got a $40 check from the Plaid settlement
- Tommstein 3y agoDidn't even know Plaid had already been sued, now I feel extra justified for shitlisting Cash App the other day when they tried to get me to use Plaid in order for them to deposit money into a bank account whose details they already had and into which they had already previously successfully deposited money.
- Eumenes 3y agoIt was via using Venmo, so yeah, same situation
- azemetre 3y agoThese kinds of cases are the only way for consumers to punish corporations, what else would you have them realistically do?
- mech987987 3y agoIt will successfully punish facebook (the payout will happen). It just won't reward individual consumers very much.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- shbooms 3y agoI think GP's point is that the amount of the settlement is not enough given the total number of users involved, rather than the class action itself is insignificant. In my opinion, in these type of cases, the amount should be directly correlated to how much revenue the company generated from the sale of the data. If the sale of my data is deemed illegal/unethical/etc, then I should reap all financial benefits plus damages. What's stopping FB from just continuing this practice and just upping their costs to their customers to include this added "cost" of doing business?
- ethbr0 3y agoIt's a good point. More hyperscale excesses would be redressed if we calculated on the greater of damages or profits. My understanding of the current model is that if {profit} - {legal fees} > {calculated damages settlement}, there's zero incentive not to break the law.
- 1123581321 3y agoIn Facebook’s privacy case there’s also a fine and an agreement to change behavior. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2019/07/ftc-imposes-5-billion-penalty-sweeping-new-privacy-restrictions-facebook https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2019/07/... Generally, class actions can include changes in behavior as part of the settlement. Class actions also pave the way for bigger class actions if the behavior isn’t changed, especially since they often negotiated by claiming to have already spent resources fixing the issue and their claims and the settlement have to pass judicial approval. I’m not saying it’s a perfect system.
- bradleyjg 3y agoEvery other country in the world has regulators that regulate for a salary rather than delegating to bounty hunter attorneys looking for a windfall.
- nisegami 3y ago>what else would you have them realistically do? Mob justice
- Red_Leaves_Flyy 3y agoCorporate death penalty and mandatory minimums for executives/responsible employees?
- izzydata 3y agoA payout of 100 billion and then the company goes bankrupt. Or more realistically a company doing such egregious behavior would cause customers to stop using it and then lead to it drastically changing or going bankrupt. But people constantly accept abuse and then forget about it.
- reaperducer 3y agoIn these kind of cases, only lawyers make a windfall. While mostly true, I've made four figures over the last five years from these kinds of lawsuit settlements. All of them from cases of companies either violating my privacy rights, or data breaches. I've made hundreds of dollars from Facebook alone.
- mkmk 3y agoHow do you keep track of them all?
- karaterobot 3y ago> That means a lot of people are eligible — Facebook reports 2 billion users globally, including about 200 million in the United States and Canada. > Only U.S. users are eligible for a payment. So, less than 200 million, for the record. But, that does not change the substance of your point.
- rqtwteye 3y ago"In these kind of cases, only lawyers make a windfall." I am starting to think this is by design. Congress is full of lawyers and they probably make laws for lawyers. If I were in charge I probably would make laws that benefit engineers.
- apple4ever 3y agoThat's exactly right. And since lawyers made the laws to ban anyone from practicing law, we get screwed .
- jononomo 3y agoSuppose only 800,000 Facebook users end up claiming. How much would each person get then?
- Xeoncross 3y agoClass-action lawsuits are a way to punish some entity, but not provide any meaningful restitution to victims. They just provide a way for law firms to reap the rewards of the victims abuse. The victims are even required to give up their rights to sue in exchange for the $0.05 - $5. It's really messed up.
- ukoki 3y agoYes the downside is the laywers get most of the money. The upside is there is a big incentive for law firms to punish companies that stray from the law, which surely helps keep these companies more compliant than they otherwise would be.
- JasserInicide 3y agowhich surely helps keep these companies more compliant than they otherwise would be. I really feel like these don't. This is what, a fraction of a fraction of their revenue? And it took how many years for it to get to this point? Let me know when governments have stopped being chickenshit and start threatening with substantial revenue amounts, and better yet, jail time for execs.
- Larrikin 3y agoThe $400 Illinois residents got from Facebook last time was pretty nice.
- notch898c 3y agoLawsuits are indeed an interesting way of enforcing the law. Although what I find particularly egregious is when a single party and lawyer is used to enforce the law for multiple people, keeping the payout for themselves. For instance, Albert Dytch [0] was a party to HUNDREDS of lawsuits, seeking ADA violations for places he essentially went to only with the purpose of finding something wrong to sue for. Why isn't that money distributed across the affected disabled people rather than one guy and his lawyer? The incentives are perverse. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/magazine/americans-with-disabilities-act.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/magazine/americans-with-d...
- rahimnathwani 3y agoThe theory is that the threat of a class action lawsuit keeps us all safer than we otherwise would be. So we benefit from all the class action lawsuits that didn't happen because companies complied with the law.