A US judge approved Facebook’s $20m settlement of a lawsuit over targeted advertising, where the social media site shared users ‘likes’ as endorsement for certain ads without taking their permission.
Five plaintiffs had filed a class action against Facebook in 2011, accusing its ‘Sponsored Stories’ programme of misuse.
US District Judge Richard Seeborg was quoted by the Agence France Presse as saying, "The settlement as a whole provides fair, reasonable, and adequate relief to the class, in light of all the circumstances, including the low probability that a substantially better result would be obtained through continued litigation."
The size of the people represented in the suit was 150 million, according to Seeborg.
About 614,000 Facebook users whose personal details appeared in ads without their approval will each get $15 each.
But as not many had filed claims, there was enough money in the settlement fund, Seeborg felt.
Earlier, advocates for child rights had also argued that it was illegal to share minors’ content with advertisers.
"Sponsored Stories, in Facebook’s view, does nothing more than take information users have already voluntarily disclosed to their "friends," and sometimes redisplays it to the same persons, in a column that also contains more traditional paid advertising," added the judge in his decision.
