Proper now, greater than 311,000 Australian Fb customers can apply for a slice of a A$50 million compensation fund from tech large Meta – the largest ever cost for a breach of Australians’ privateness.

However the clock is ticking. Even when you’re eligible, you solely have till December 31 2025 to make your declare. Comparable payouts have already begun in the USA.

From who’s eligible, to how one can make a declare, to how a lot the eventual payout may be: right here’s what it’s worthwhile to know.

Why so many Australians can apply

The landmark settlement arose from Meta’s involvement within the Cambridge Analytica scandal: a large knowledge breach within the 2010s, when a British knowledge agency harvested personal data from 87 million Fb profiles worldwide.

It led to a record-breaking US$5 billion penalty (about $A7.7 billion right now) within the US in opposition to Meta as Fb’s guardian firm, and the creation of a US$725 million (A$1.1 billion) compensation scheme for affected Individuals.

Right here in Australia, an investigation by the nationwide privateness regulator – the Workplace of the Australian Data Commissioner – discovered Cambridge Analytica used the This Is Your Digital Life persona quiz app to extract private data.

That investigation discovered simply 53 Australian Fb customers put in the app. However one other 311,074 Australian Fb customers have been buddies of these 53 folks, which means the app may have requested their data too.

In December 2024, the Data Commissioner introduced she had settled a court docket case with Meta in return for an “enforceable enterprise”, together with a file A$50 million cost program.

Claims opened on June 30 this 12 months and shut on December 31.

Registrations have opened for a cost program established by Meta for Australian Fb customers impacted by the Cambridge Analytica incident.

Extra data is on the market from scheme administrator KPMG: https://t.co/Bxd2h1nzO7 pic.twitter.com/Gc6G89oGlh

— Workplace of the Australian Data Commissioner (@OAICgov) June 30, 2025

Who can apply?

You’ll be able to apply when you:

• held a Fb account between 2 November 2013 and 17 December 2015 (the eligibility interval)
• have been in Australia for greater than 30 days throughout that interval, and
• both put in the Life app or have been Fb buddies with somebody who did.

The way to apply – however look ahead to scams

The Fb Cost Program is being administered by consultants KPMG. (Meta has to pay KPMG to run it; that doesn’t come out of the $50 million fund.)

That web site is the place to go along with questions or to lodge a declare.

Meta has despatched all Australians it is aware of could also be eligible this “token” notification inside Fb:

Chances are you’ll be entitled to obtain cost from litigation lately settled in Australia. Study extra.

Strive this hyperlink to see if the corporate has information of you or your folks logging into the Digital Life app. If there are, it is best to have the ability to use the “quick observe” software.

If you happen to didn’t get that notification however you assume you have been affected, you can also make a declare utilizing the commonplace course of by proving:

• your id, similar to with a passport or driver’s licence
• you held a Fb account and have been positioned in Australia in the course of the eligibility interval.

However be careful for scammers pretending to be from Fb or to be serving to with claims.

Which payout may you be eligible for?

You should select to use for compensation below one in every of two “courses”, requiring various kinds of proof.

Class 1: the more durable possibility, anticipated to get greater payouts

To assert for “particular loss or injury”, you’ll want to supply documented proof of financial and/or non-economic loss or damages. For instance, this might embody out-of-pocket medical or counselling prices, or having to maneuver in case your private particulars have been made public.

You’ll additionally want to point out that injury was brought on by the Cambridge Analytica knowledge breach. For many individuals, proving in depth loss or injury could also be troublesome.

Class 1 claims will likely be determined first. There are not any predetermined payout quantities; every will likely be determined individually.

In case your class 1 declare is unsuccessful, however you’re in any other case eligible for a payout, it is possible for you to to get a category 2 payout as an alternative.

Class 2: the simpler possibility, more likely to get smaller payouts

Alternatively, you possibly can select to say just for loss or injury primarily based on “a generalised concern or embarrassment” brought on by the information breach.

It’s a a lot simpler course of – but additionally more likely to be a a lot smaller cost.

All class 2 claimants will obtain the identical quantity, after the category 1 payouts.

These claimants solely want to supply a statutory declaration that they’ve a real perception the breach triggered them concern or embarrassment.

In Meta’s enforceable enterprise with the Data Commissioner, it states KPMG is ready to apply a cap on funds to claimants. It additionally says if there may be cash left after all of the payouts, KPMG pays that quantity to the Australian authorities’s Consolidated Income Fund.

Meta informed The Dialog:

There’s not a pre-determined cap on funds. The suitable time to find out whether or not any cap ought to apply to funds made to claimants is following the top of the registration interval [December 31].

So it’s not but clear how a lot of the $50 million fund will go to Australian claimants versus how a lot may find yourself going to the federal authorities.

Funds are anticipated to be made out of round August 2026.

How a lot are payouts more likely to be?

Payouts from related settlements by Meta elsewhere have been very small. For instance, US Fb customers eligible for his or her US$725 million compensation scheme have expressed shock at the dimensions of their payouts. One report suggests the typical US cost is round US$30 (A$45) every.

Right here in Australia, rather a lot will rely upon how many individuals hassle to register between now and December 31.

• Graham Greenleaf, Honorary Professor, Macquarie Legislation Faculty, Macquarie College and Katharine Kemp, Affiliate Professor, College of Legislation & Justice; Lead, UNSW Public Curiosity Legislation & Tech Initiative, UNSW Sydney

This text is republished from The Dialog below a Artistic Commons license. Learn the unique article.