Late last year, we reported on a $20 million class-action lawsuit covering people who were unwittingly featured in Facebook “Sponsored Stories” advertisements. User photos were used to endorse products they had “liked” without their permission and often without their knowledge. Worse still, there was no opt-out. A San Francisco federal judge granted preliminary settlement approval for the case in December 2012. Late Monday evening, the same judge approved a final settlement agreement between the plaintiffs and Facebook, granting each person who actually bothered to file a claim a monetary award of $15. “The record leaves no doubt that this settlement was the product of arms-length negotiations and compromise,” Judge Richard Seeborg wrote (PDF) in the final order.
