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Facebook Class Action Suit

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40 pointsbrenfrow24 comments

So if you read the long form notice (http://docs.fraleyfacebooksettlement.com/docs/notice.pdf), the terms are actually not as horrible as normal.

Yes, class counsel wants ridiculous fees, but it seems rather than the "we're gonna pay everyone 10 bucks and call it a day", they also seem to require at least a few changes from facebook, though some of them seem laughable:

"Encourage new users, upon or soon after joining Facebook, to include their family in their profile information, including their parents and children. Where both a parent and a minor child are users and confirm their relationship,

Facebook will provide parents of Minor Subclass Members with certain additional educational information and tools to control whether their children’s names and profile pictures are displayed in connection with Sponsored Stories"

Hey, we didn't want to bug people to find their parents to expand our large social graph! We were legally required!

As is usually the case with these types of settlements, the lawyers (on both sides) win and the defendants (facebook) win.

The lawyers make something, but when people see lawyers get 2 million or 3 million from some large litigation, they don't understand that the lawyers probably put in 3000+ hours of work (each), plus large cost outlays.

it's hard because i'm not familiar with this particular case, but in cases like this one, they often front well over a million dollars.

Wow, I wish my work was worth a thousand dollars an hour.

I said "each". It's not like this is one lawyer, it's probably 2-5 lawyers from each firm, including associates. Then they also have support staff, etc.

All the documents in a large case with a very large class can amount to hundreds of thousands of pages (maybe millions). Someone has to review that stuff.

they also seem to require at least a few changes from facebook, though some of them seem laughable

Don't worry, they'll drop them for a few more FB $millions. It almost never fails

Err, no, they won't, this is the settlement the judge agreed to. It wouldn't be at this point and you wouldn't be getting notification if it wasn't past the point of negotiating.

Is it worth (up to) $10 to give FB my street address?

This is an uninformed question; I didn't check whether that data does or might work its way back to FB. But if they do or could, my answer -- for all that they may well already have it through other channels -- is no.

P.S. Which is a shame, as I'd like to see FB pay for this.

P.P.S. Ok, someone else here is saying that undisbursed funds will be contributed to "some good cause". Better, I guess, for me, than would be turning this into a data mining opportunity for FB.

I filled it out. It asks you under the penalty of perjury if you think you were "injured". I had no problem saying yes because I took issue with a couple of things people liked, and I felt that others may have felt the same way about things I liked.

This will probably discourage many others from filling it out, though, in addition to the time it takes.

It would be nice if it asked the questions about whether a person considers himself or herself a part of the class before asking how to pay them. It would be a bit of a waste to fill all that out and not submit it.

>I had no problem saying yes because I took issue with a couple of things people liked, and I felt that others may have felt the same way about things I liked.

Is this a joke ? I fail to see Facebook is responsible for the opinions of people you chose to add. Do you equally cry foul if you overhear comments you don't like in public or on a message board such as HN ?

The question is intended for people who were subject to bullying, direct threats, sexual abuse etc.

Nope, just a weakly held opinion.

    "Facebook denies any wrongdoing and any liability whatsoever."

I dislike those statements, at least say "we are paying money because some people were displeased with our action" ~_~

part of $20MM being split up at max $10 increments, less than 2 million people.

Everyone should exclude themselves from the lawsuit just in case something comes by in the future.

    If paying $10 to each Authorized Claimant does not exhaust the Net Settlement Fund, the remaining funds will be distributed to the not-for-profit organizations identified below, unless the Court orders otherwise as discussed in Section 2.3(b) of the Settlement Agreement.

so even if no one else participates in the claims, it goes to a good(?) cause.

1. Counsel asked for 7.5 million in fees, so you should assume the amount being split up is only 12.5 million, total.

2. Nobody ever admits wrongdoing in a settlement, because it would lead to more lawsuits.

I was asked, but I'm not taking part in this suit. I was not harmed or put out in any way, and would bet that most people that participate weren't either. I really dislike this type of class action suit. Instead I wish they would get me my money for the thousands I've put into my car for a design flaw that has been obvious for years- but no- instead of justice where justice is due, there are tons of people getting 10 bucks from a company that they don't even pay for their service for something that the company didn't even do.

Justice will not be served.

Good luck getting $10 in the settlement. I got a settlement check last year on a Google Adwords class action suit that I think I was automatically included in. I don't remember ever doing anything to join it. Anyway my check was for 60 cents, and this was for a suit involving an actual paid service. How much do you really think you'll get back on free?

I remember getting a payout from Apple because of the way they advertised the size of their monitor screens. I received a coupon for a few bucks off on the purchase of my next Apple monitor.

"Each participating Class Member who submits a valid and timely claim form may be eligible to receive up to $10."

I got one of those mails to, but for $10 filling out the form is way too much effort.

And it's "up to $10". Totally not worth it.

If you want to exclude yourself (in case you get bored and want to sue them later), the form is here:

https://secure.gcginc.com/fbk/excl/exclform.aspx

I received this today, too. Does every Facebook member get one of these or only a subset (e.g. only US residents)?

My sister-in-law got one of these too. It came from "facebookmail.com". Anyone know if this is legit?

http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2013/01/28/facebook-suit-se...

I was curious about that, but `whois facebookmail.com` shows Facebook's nameservers for it, which means it's under their control.

Leaving facebook would still be the better option - even if you still show up in sponsored stories.

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