If you ever set up a Google+ account, you may be due some cash
Google has agreed to a $7.5m settlement over its 2018 data breach.
Google+ might be gone but it’s not forgotten. At least not by the courts. On June 10, Google agreed to settle a class-action ( go.pcworld.com/cact) lawsuit over the “software bugs” that led to some 50 million accounts having their data leaked ( go. pcworld.com/dtlk). The settlement is a relatively small one, just $7.5 million, but if you ever set up a Google account, you may be eligible for a piece of it: $12 to be exact.
Previous Google+ account holders have likely already received an ominous email claiming “You are not being sued,” but if you banished it to your spam folder, here are the details. All claims must be submitted by October 8 and as per usual, any claims forfeit all rights “to sue Google and/or any other
released entities regarding the legal claims in this case.” If you’d like to retain these rights, you must opt-out of the settlement.
Users are only allowed to submit one $12 claim regardless of the number of Google+ accounts you may have had. You can file a claim using this link ( go.pcworld.com/gclm).
The only requirements for filing a claim are that you had a Google+ account at some point between January 1, 2015, and April 2, 2019, and “entered private (meaning non-public) information in at least one of (the) Google+ profile fields that was not set to be shared publicly.” Finally, you must consent that you either shared that information with another Google+ user or authorized a third-party app to access my Google+ profile field information.”
Granted, it’s nearly impossible to prove this, but you are entering into a legal contract, so you’ll want to be as truthful as possible.