Longtime Globe readers getting something back for their subscriptions

By adamg on Sat, 02/17/2024 - 11:20am

Dan Kennedy reports that long-time Globe readers are being notified they're owed up to $158.03 as their share of a settlement of a lawsuit over the Globe's online privacy practices.

A California man sued the Globe in 2022 over its use of a Facebook "tracking pixel" with videos on bostonglobe.com, which he claimed Facebook was using to gather personal information about anybody who watched the videos.

Ed. note: We got our notice last night and promptly signed up for the payment, which supposedly will come within the next three business days. It'll help with the $2.10 weekly increase the Globe announced in January for our Sunday-only subscription.

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Comments

If the Sox sign Blake Snell...

By CopleyScott17 on Sat, 02/17/2024 - 11:22am.

...I'll let them keep my share.

Nothing for me so far...

By Angry Dan on Sat, 02/17/2024 - 1:19pm.

Was this the final result of a long-ago email from a law firm that requested all your personal info for a shot at a possible, but most likely negligible settlement in the far-off future? I normally ignore those as they are practically indistinguishable from scams.

Yep

By adamg on Sat, 02/17/2024 - 3:31pm.

Although as these things go, not that far back, sometime last year maybe?

Guess I don't qualify

By Angry Dan on Sat, 02/17/2024 - 7:12pm.

I've been a Globe subscriber since before the suit but no emails received since the time the suit was filed.

I do have one I ignored for a supposed Verizon suit that links to sketchy-looking domain
verizonadministrativechargesettlement[dot]com

The verizon one is real

By BostonDog on Sun, 02/18/2024 - 8:43am.

If a court is forcing a company to return a fraction of the money they stole from me, the least I can do is accept it.

I think I'm due about $120 from Verizon. That's enough to treat me and the gal an ice cream at that new place in the seaport.

I guess we'll see

By Angry Dan on Sun, 02/18/2024 - 10:26am.

I went ahead and submitted for the Verizon settlement.

your settlement payment may be up to $100.00 for your account, but the final amount may be lower depending on how long you were a Verizon subscriber and how many Settlement Class Members file valid claims.

I am not a lawyer but multiple maybes usually add up to a whole lot of nothing.

FOMO confirmed

By Angry Dan on Sun, 02/18/2024 - 9:53am.

I subscribed in March of 2020, just shy of 2 years before the suit was filed.

The “Settlement Class” or “Settlement Class Members” is defined as:
[A]ll persons in the United States who, from February 5, 2020, to
and through the Preliminary Approval date: (1) have or had a
Facebook account; (2) also had a digital subscription to the Boston
Globe, or a home delivery subscription to the Boston Globe that
includes digital access; and (3) who viewed videos on Boston
Globe’s website while their Facebook membership was active.3

It's very common for a law

By xyz on Sun, 02/18/2024 - 11:39am.

It's very common for a law firm to buy a domain name like that if they're filing a big class action suit. Of course, it'd also be easy for a scammer to do that. So I guess the best thing to do would be to independently verify that the putative suit exists.

Cut and paste the domain name, don't click the link

By mg on Sun, 02/18/2024 - 12:56pm.

Cut and paste the domain name, don't click the link. If you click on a word that is linked to a site, you don't know where it's actually going to take you. The BG settlement email provided a link, but also the domain name and the ID number I could use if I didn't want to blindly click the link (which I didn't). It also provided the choice between getting paid by PayPal vs. a paper check. I chose the latter, rather than share my PayPal info.

And as @xyz says, that's what the legit domain names usually look like. I'll also do a search on the settlement name to get further info, which can be very helpful.

Nope

By Jiggles on Sat, 02/17/2024 - 7:38pm.

Nice try passing the buck for your missed opportunity. The emails went out last year and everyone who was both a Globe subscriber and had a Facebook account during the relevant time period was eligible. You either weren’t eligible, missed the email, or received the email and fumbled the bag.

I love class action suits

By tachometer on Sat, 02/17/2024 - 9:41pm.

Usually it's only about 5-10 minutes of searching to verify that it's a legit case/address/website and then registering. Then I promptly forget about it until the payment comes around. The average seems to be in the $70-odd dollar range so it's not bad for the effort.

Not really...

By 02132 on Sun, 02/18/2024 - 3:28pm.

Class action suits already have your information, that's why they know to contact you. Ignoring emails like the one they sent out is silly. There's no downside at all, and a quick search will tell you if it is a legit offer or not.

Doesn't matter now, obv, the cut-off for responding was 4 months ago.

And I was wondering

By Will on Sat, 02/17/2024 - 3:11pm.

if that email was legit. Much more than I ever expected.

Same here

By Allstonian on Sat, 02/17/2024 - 4:40pm.

Yes, I was really surprised. Those things usually end up paying just a few dollars! I wonder whether folks are so burned out on this kind of stuff that not many people signed up?

Higher than expected

By Angry Dan on Sun, 02/18/2024 - 9:35am.

The proposed settlement agreement, which still needs the approval of a judge in US District Court in Boston, states this should mean payouts of between $22 and $44 for each digital subscriber.

I was not notified (or the notice was filtered as spam). So if only a fraction of the class was notified it might have greatly boosted the payouts.

We were surprised

By SwirlyGrrl on Sun, 02/18/2024 - 10:54pm.

My husband verified it with a neighbor who would know, then filed for it.

We are kind of surprised that it is like 20x more than what we expected.

What, no tomato can?

No refund for me

By onelith on Mon, 02/19/2024 - 5:10pm.

I subscribe to the Boston Globe's digital version for free thru the BPL. Must re subscribe every 3 days but costs nothing. Frugal life for me!