Meta Reaches $37.5M Settlement in Facebook Location Tracking Lawsuit

    Sarah Tew/CNET
    

    Court documents show that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has reached a $37.5 million settlement in a lawsuit accusing the company of violating the privacy of some users by tracking their movements through their smartphones without permission. This is not the first time Facebook has been accused of tracking users.
    This settlement was filed Monday in federal court in San Francisco and still needs to be approved by a judge.?
    The case stems from claims that Facebook gathered location data on users who had turned off location services on their mobile devices, in violation of California law and Facebook’s own privacy policy.
    People in the United States who used Facebook after Jan. 30, 2015, are covered in this settlement.
    Meta did not comment on the settlement.
    If approved, this would be the latest lawsuit Meta and Facebook have settled.?
    In February 2021, Facebook agreed to a $650 million settlement after users claimed the company created and stored scans of their faces without permission, in violation of Illinois’ biometric laws. Nearly 1.6 million Facebook users from Illinois received payouts of $397 each.
    In June of this year, a district court in California gave preliminary approval to a $90 million class action settlement after users claimed Facebook tracked people’s activities on external websites. This settlement has a final approval hearing set for Oct. 27.
    

    
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