In yet another chapter of the ongoing saga of tech giants and their questionable privacy practices, Google finds itself settling a $5 billion privacy lawsuit. This lawsuit revolves around Google’s alleged tracking of users in Chrome (and other browser’s) “incognito” mode, a practice that we’re sure is continuing unabated.

Who laughs last undoubtedly laughs longest. If Fortnite tricked you or your little one into making unauthorized in-game purchases and consequently locked your account for disputing the same, it’s payback time. Ironically, Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, lost in a legal Battle Royale after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) compelled the game maker into a $520 million settlement in refunds and penalties. Over 37 million Fortnite players are eligible for a slice of the $245 million refund money.

If you’ve heard about the recent Google class action settlement, you may be wondering if it’s real (yes, it’s real), whether you yourself qualify to receive any money from the settlement fund (yes, likely, but you have to register for it), and how much you’ll get (best estimates are somewhere between $7 and $8).

The news and notifications about the 2023 Facebook settlement are legitimate; it’s not a scam. If you used Facebook at any time between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022, you are what is called a ‘member of the class’ and entitled to part of the settlement money (that’s how class action lawsuits work). That said, you can be sure that plenty of scams will piggyback on to this Facebook settlement, so only go to the link that you get from Facebook, or that we are giving you here as it’s the same link.

If you received an email saying ‘Notice of Proposed Settlement of Class Action’ for a Facebook lawsuit settlement, it’s legit. There is a settlement in the Facebook lawsuit class action over the Internet tracking of Facebook users, and the settlement payout date will be some time after September 22, 2022. That is because September 22 is the date by which you must submit your claim as part of the ‘class’ and receive your payout. Nobody knows how much the payout will be, and in part that is because it depends on how many people submit claims; the settlement itself is $90million. Of course, the attorneys will receive about a third of that, leaving a pool of about $60million to be divided between everyone who submits a claim (that’s generally how class action settlements work).

LifeLock, the company that offers identity theft insurance, has settled a lawsuit with the FTC after the Federal Trade Commission sued LifeLock for deceptive advertising claims. Life Lock says that they were happy to settle the suit because the suit was based on facts that are two years old, and no longer applicable.

If you didn’t yet get a notice from Amazon about a credit from the settlement of the anti-trust price-fixing lawsuit against Apple and book publishers, you may be wondering “Am I entitled to the Amazon credit from the lawsuit settlement?”. You may even have come to the conclusion that you aren’t going to receive credit from the settlement, even though you are sure that you purchased ebooks from Amazon before April of 2012. Well, just because you haven’t received the notice yet, doesn’t mean that you don’t have a credit coming. Here’s how to find out if you are getting a credit from that lawsuit settlement.

If you had or have a Paypal account that was active between 2006 and 2015 (and who hasn’t?) you may be entitled to money from Paypal under the settlement of a class action lawsuit against Paypal. The lawsuit against Paypal, Moises Zepeda v. PayPal Inc. (case number 4:10-cv-02500-SBA, the full Zapeda v. Paypal complaint is below), was filed back in 2010, and is finally settled.

You may have received an email from Amazon this week that says “Your Credit from the Apple eBooks Antitrust Settlement Is Ready to Use” – and guess what: it’s legitimate! That credit will show up in your Amazon account as a gift card balance.

Back in May of 2011, the Sony PlayStation Network (PSN) was hacked, compromising as many as all user accounts, as well as those of Qriocity and Sony Online Entertainment. A class-action lawsuit was filed, and now there is a settlement, in which all subscribers at or before that time stand to share.

Snapchat, the subject of a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) action stemming from their claims that “snaps” would disappear forever after mere seconds – which of course wasn’t true – has settled with the FTC.

Two years ago, almost to the day, the government filed an antitrust price-fixing lawsuit against Apple, Hatchette, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Penguin, for price-fixing higher rates on ebooks in an effort to put the squeeze on Amazon and their Kindle.

A settlement over the class action lawsuit against Netflix for privacy issues, which included retaining personally identifiable data with respect to customer video renting and viewing habits, has been reached, and if you are a current or former Netflix subscriber, you may have received an email notice of the class action settlement. The email, sent from “Online DVD Class Action Administrator” has a subject of “Video Privacy Lawsuit – Current and Former Netflix Subscribers”, and goes on to tell you what your rights are with respect to the settlement, which settlement includes Netflix ‘decoupling’ your video rental and viewing data from your personal information. It also advises you that you have to opt out of the settlement in order to retain any rights you may have to sue Netflix directly over the privacy violation.

Myspace (yes, they are still around, believe it or not) has settle charges with the Federal Trade Commission over Myspace’s alleged misleading of their users as to how Myspace was handling user personal information. Put plainly, Myspace was sharing the personal information of their users with advertisers, but misleading users about how they were using their personal information.

The United States Justice Department has announced today a settlement in which Google will forfeit $500 million for leading users to Canadian pharmacies which illegally sell and send prescription drugs to consumers in the United States, without requiring proof of a prescription.