Meta is providing payments to individuals affected by violations of their digital privacy, but the specific amounts involved are a point of curiosity. Commencing in September, Meta began the procedure of distributing funds to select Facebook users who had successfully submitted a claim by the 2023 cutoff. These claims are associated with the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, during which Facebook was charged with allowing the exploitation of user data, resulting in a $725 million settlement for its users.

The legal value of this compensation differs. If your data was breached and you submitted a claim, the payment is contingent on your length of Facebook activity during the period of data exploitation. Reports, including one from Reuters, suggest that average payouts hover around $30 per individual, with a ceiling of roughly $38.

In the end, it is up to individuals to assess whether $30 is sufficient compensation for having their personal data misused by a company that played a role in Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election success.