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Facebook's $20 Million Privacy Settlement Clears Appeals Court

By Cheryl Miller
January 31, 2016

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Jan. 6 upheld a $20 million class action settlement that resolved privacy claims against Facebook Inc. over a feature that posted users names and images along with advertising promotions.

The so-called “sponsored stories” settlement, approved in 2013 by U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg of the Northern District of California, allotted $15 to each claimant and reserved roughly $2 million for cy pres recipients.

Objectors had hoped the case would be a vehicle to limit the use of charitable donations as part of class action settlements. But Circuit Judges William Fletcher and Marsha Berzon sanctioned the deal's cy pres component, finding no fault in Seeborg's conclusion that the nonprofits selected to receive donations were suitable and worked to advance causes closely tied to the case.

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