Judge In Facebook Privacy Lawsuit Reserves Decision On $9.5M Settlement

After conducting a hearing on Friday, a federal judge reserved decision about whether to approve a controversial $9.5 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit against Facebook stemming from its Beacon program.

If US District Court Judge Richard Seeborg in San Jose (CA) approves the agreement, Facebook would be required to shutter Beacon permanently and to contribute approximately $6 million to a new privacy foundation. The 19 individual consumers named in the complaint would receive amounts ranging from $1,000 to $15,000, but no other Facebook members would receive a monetary award. And attorneys who represented consumers against Facebook would receive approximately $3 million. Overall, around 3.6 million Facebook members were affected by Beacon, according to court papers filed two weeks ago by Scott Kamber -- one of the attorneys who brought the class-action lawsuit.