Get one of those $36.29 direct deposits from Facebook? Here’s what you should know

Did you recently get a direct deposit of $36.29 from Meta and are wondering if you can keep it?

The company Facebook hired to manage the process, says, yes you can, but with conditions.

The payments are the result of a class action settlement with the social media company Meta.  The lawsuit alleged the company had used people’s Facebook photos without their consent as part of an advertising tool.

“On January 8 … MNP Ltd. became the class action claims administrator of the Meta Inc. (formerly Facebook) Sponsored Stories Class Action,” Nick Greenfield of MNP told CBC News in an emailed statement.

“Eligible class members had to be resident in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba or Newfoundland and Labrador within the class period (January 1, 2011, through May 31, 2014). Some of these members may now currently reside in a different province.”

Greenfield said earlier this month, electronic transfers of $36.29 were issued to people who submitted a claim.

A privacy expert said this particular case took more than a decade to wrap up and it has affected a lot of people.

“The wheels of justice in Canada do turn rather slowly. And when you look at the numbers — the millions of people that use Facebook — the number of people that might have been affected by this and the ultimate number who actually are part of the class, we’re talking in the thousands,” Sharon Polsky said in a Monday interview.

Polsky, president of the Privacy & Access Council of Canada, is optimistic that many people are asking questions.

“And with so many frauds and scams, it’s good that a lot of them are wondering if this is legitimate or if it’s another scam.”

Sharon Polsky is the president of Privacy & Access Council of Canada. (Google Meet)

But Polsky still has outstanding concerns.

“Were children’s images used? Were they notified? Did they know anything about it? And what happens? I mean, they could have been children at the time, whether they were old enough to actually have an account or not.”

A Calgary Facebook user received two deposits, but didn’t initially know what they were for.

“I assumed because I sell quite a bit on Marketplace that it was just like one of those scams or something,” Cathy Antaya told CBC News.

“So I just trashed the emails and then I saw on [social media] they posted about receiving it as well. And so then I thought, ‘Oh, maybe there’s something to that.’ So I checked my bank account and sure enough there were two auto deposits for the same amount.”

Don’t accept, in some cases

Antaya said in a way, this feels like a lost opportunity for the company.

“I guess it’s fine a company being held accountable, but what if people don’t even know about it,” she wondered

Greenfield with MNP said with a class action of this size, administrators are paying out almost 900,000 claims, so there are going to be challenges.

“If an individual did not live in one of the four provinces during the class period, they should not accept the payment as they do not meet the definition of a class member,” he wrote in a follow-up email.

Meta can be contacted directly with any questions at facebooksettlement@mnp.ca.