Facebook Pays Up
Posted: 24 May 2022, 20:25
I'm sure I mentioned this when it first came up in October of 2020. I figured it was a lost cause, but I received a check from Facebook today in the amount of $397.00. You may have forgotten my story and I'll refresh your memory here just for the record.
I moved to Missouri in 2016 and lived in the state of Illinois for all the previous 72 years of my life. You know me well enough to know that I'm big on computers and social networking so that it should come as no surprise to you that at one point in my former life I was very active on Facebook. One day a friend, it could have been a relative, posted a photograph in which I was one of the people therein. Facebook in all its infinite wisdom used the biometric data they had on me and "tagged" the picture to identify me to anyone who cared to view the photo. I guess that was cute, or something, and I recall being very surprised that I was tagged. It was a relatively new feature at the time and I didn't think much of it, but I do recall looking at the picture. It was nothing unusual or particularly invasive. It's just that Facebook knew it was me. This all happened sometime prior to 2016.
I wasn't too happy about being tagged but I literally forgot about it. Then one fine day between 2016 and 2020 I found a tweet on Twitter announcing that the state of Illinois was pursuing a class action law suit against Facebook regarding their unlawful tagging. Apparently Facebook neglected to tell folks they were collecting biometric data from all those family pictures people were posting. They did, however, use that data to tag people as I described above. I looked over the article and followed the link to the lawyers processing the claim. I qualified in that I was tagged and lived in Illinois so I filled out the form. They won the lawsuit and Facebook agreed to pay out I don't recall how many millions. My share would be the total payout divided by the number of valid claims. The attorneys thought it would be about $200. After I filed all the paperwork the lawyers sent a follow up letter wanting me to ascertain that I actually lived in Illinois at the specific time. I assured them I did and never heard from them afterwards. I kept all the paperwork and laughed it off because I assumed some legal loophole would disqualify me, or that some lawyer would use my share to buy his wife a dinner at a fancy restaurant.
I don't know what to say. You know how much I love Facebook. I stopped going there about the time I made the above claim. Against all odds and way beyond my wildest expectations, Facebook sent me a check for nearly twice the amount I was prepared for. Even more amazing is the fact that the legal system worked as intended. These are two once in a lifetime historic events that frankly overwhelmed me.
And, just because I figured I'm on a roll, I bought two (2) lottery tickets today.
I moved to Missouri in 2016 and lived in the state of Illinois for all the previous 72 years of my life. You know me well enough to know that I'm big on computers and social networking so that it should come as no surprise to you that at one point in my former life I was very active on Facebook. One day a friend, it could have been a relative, posted a photograph in which I was one of the people therein. Facebook in all its infinite wisdom used the biometric data they had on me and "tagged" the picture to identify me to anyone who cared to view the photo. I guess that was cute, or something, and I recall being very surprised that I was tagged. It was a relatively new feature at the time and I didn't think much of it, but I do recall looking at the picture. It was nothing unusual or particularly invasive. It's just that Facebook knew it was me. This all happened sometime prior to 2016.
I wasn't too happy about being tagged but I literally forgot about it. Then one fine day between 2016 and 2020 I found a tweet on Twitter announcing that the state of Illinois was pursuing a class action law suit against Facebook regarding their unlawful tagging. Apparently Facebook neglected to tell folks they were collecting biometric data from all those family pictures people were posting. They did, however, use that data to tag people as I described above. I looked over the article and followed the link to the lawyers processing the claim. I qualified in that I was tagged and lived in Illinois so I filled out the form. They won the lawsuit and Facebook agreed to pay out I don't recall how many millions. My share would be the total payout divided by the number of valid claims. The attorneys thought it would be about $200. After I filed all the paperwork the lawyers sent a follow up letter wanting me to ascertain that I actually lived in Illinois at the specific time. I assured them I did and never heard from them afterwards. I kept all the paperwork and laughed it off because I assumed some legal loophole would disqualify me, or that some lawyer would use my share to buy his wife a dinner at a fancy restaurant.
I don't know what to say. You know how much I love Facebook. I stopped going there about the time I made the above claim. Against all odds and way beyond my wildest expectations, Facebook sent me a check for nearly twice the amount I was prepared for. Even more amazing is the fact that the legal system worked as intended. These are two once in a lifetime historic events that frankly overwhelmed me.
And, just because I figured I'm on a roll, I bought two (2) lottery tickets today.