The lawsuit, filed last year, alleged that the practice is a violation of Facebook users’ privacy.
Under Facebook’s proposed deal to settle the lawsuit, it would have given users more control over their “likes,” including the opportunity for users under the age of 18 to opt-out of Sponsored Stories completely.
The company would have also paid $10 million to the plaintiff’s legal team and another $10 million to pro-privacy organizations, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg, who made his uneasiness about the deal known earlier this month, has now firmly rejected it on the basis that the monetary amounts seemed to have been “merely plucked from thin air,” according to Wired.
Seeborg argued that the deal didn’t do enough to address the damages of the 100 million Facebook users who have already appeared in Sponsored Stories. He wrote in his decision that under California law, each party to the lawsuit could be awarded up to $750.
Source: Mashable
