A federal judge in San Francisco has approved a $725 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit alleging that Facebook violated the privacy of millions of users by allowing their data to be harvested by the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

The settlement, which was announced in December 2022, is the largest privacy settlement in U.S. history. It is open to all U.S. Facebook users who were on the platform between May 2007 and December 2022.

As of the deadline for filing claims, which was September 8, 2023, a record 17 million claims had been submitted. This is more than double the number of claims that were filed in the previous largest privacy settlement, which was a $500 million settlement with Google over its Street View data collection practices.

“As far as we can tell that’s the largest number of claims ever filed in a class action in the United States,” said Lesley Weaver, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the case.

The settlement provides for a number of measures to improve Facebook's privacy practices, including:

• Creating a new privacy oversight board to review Facebook's privacy policies and decisions

• Investing in new privacy technologies

• Strengthening Facebook's data security measures

The settlement also provides for a $725 million fund to compensate class members. The amount each class member receives will be based on a number of factors, including the amount of data that was shared with Cambridge Analytica and the length of time they were on Facebook.

The settlement is still subject to final approval by the judge. However, it is unlikely that the judge will reject the settlement, given the large number of claims that have been filed.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal was a major blow to Facebook's reputation. The scandal revealed that Cambridge Analytica had harvested the personal data of millions of Facebook users without their knowledge or consent. The data was then used to target voters with political ads during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

This is a significant victory for the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, as it provides compensation for those who were affected by the Cambridge Analytica scandal and it also requires Facebook to take steps to improve its privacy practices. It is also a reminder of the importance of protecting personal data online, because concerns still exist about how the social media giant collects and uses member data.