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If you got a check from the Facebook privacy settlement last fall and cashed it, check your inbox — another payment is on the way.
A U.S. District Court in California issued an order in May to approve a second round of distributions from the $725 million class action settlement against Meta, Facebook’s parent company (1). Payments start going out on June 9 and will be distributed in batches over approximately four weeks, according to the official Facebook User Privacy Settlement website (2).
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Eligible users should receive an email three to four days before payments are issued. Qualified users can check the inbox they used for their original claim and follow any instructions in the message (3).
This isn’t new money per se since it’s leftover funds from the first distribution. In the first round, uncashed checks and expired digital payments left about $100 million unclaimed, and the court ordered that those funds be redistributed to people who successfully received their first payment.
What the settlement was about
The lawsuit behind this settlement goes back to 2018, when Facebook’s involvement in the Cambridge Analytica scandal blew up (4).
Plaintiffs say Facebook let third parties, including advertisers and data brokers, access users’ information without proper consent and didn’t do enough to police how that data was collected or used (5).
One of those third parties was researcher Aleksandr Kogan, who built a Facebook personality quiz app called “thisisyourdigitallife (6).” About 250,000 to 270,000 users took the quiz, but Facebook’s API allowed apps to also collect data from takers’ friends, pulling in information from up to 87 million people (7).
Kogan’s company then shared this dataset with Cambridge Analytica (8), a political consulting firm which later used it to build psychographic voter profiles for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign (9).
The case settled for $725 million. Legal fees and administrative costs took about $169 million of it, according to Yahoo Finance (10), which means there was roughly $556 million left to disburse.
About 250 million people qualified to receive the money, but they had to file for the claim to get paid, and only 19 million people filed (10). The first round of payments went out in September 2025, and the average payment was $29.43 (11). The settlement calculated payments based on how long someone used Facebook during the 15–year period it covers and how many people filed claims (12).
And while the money’s still going out, Meta hasn’t admitted fault — the company denied all liability and said it didn’t violate any law.
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How the second payment works — and who gets it
Of the 19 million validated claimants, not everyone followed through. (13)More than 200,000 checks were never cashed, and 3 million digital payments expired, according to the Hill, which left about $100 million in undistributed funds that the court has now approved for redistribution (13).
The second payment is only for the estimated 15.7 million people who got and successfully cashed (or accepted) their first payment (13). If you’re not sure whether you qualify, you can email the settlement administrator directly at [email protected] and include your claim ID.
Payments go out the same way you chose when you filed — check, direct deposit, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle or prepaid debit card. And if you’re wondering how much you’d get this time, CBS News reports that it’s likely to be smaller than the initial $29.43 average, because this distribution is from unclaimed funds in the first round (3).
What you can’t do
The claim deadline passed in 2023. If you didn’t file a claim by then, you’re not eligible for either payment, and there’s no way to enter the settlement now. The court gave final approval to the $725 million settlement on October 10, 2023, and the claim submission deadline was earlier that year (14).
If you filed, but didn’t cash your first check or your digital payment expired, you’re also not in line for the second round. The redistribution goes to people who successfully received and cashed (or accepted) their first payment.
You also can’t file a new claim now to qualify. The settlement administrator won’t accept new claims after the deadline, and the court won’t reopen the window. If you’re unsure whether you qualified, check your email for the original settlement notice or contact the administrator directly at [email protected] with your claim ID.
Watch out for scams
The Facebook settlement has attracted a wave of phishing attempts. If you receive an email saying you have a payment coming, verify it through the official settlement website (facebookuserprivacysettlement.com (15)) before clicking any links or providing any personal information.
The legitimate notification will carry the subject line “Facebook User Privacy Settlement – Settlement and Second Distribution Status Update.” and will not ask you for financial information you didn’t already provide when you originally filed your claim.
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Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
USA Today (1); Facebook User Privacy Settlement (2), (15); CBS News (3), (11); Courthouse News (4); BFA Law (5), (14); Federal Trade Commission (6); BBC (7); YouTube (8); Yahoo (9); Yahoo Finance (10); CNN Edition (12); The Hill (13)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
