Google+ settlement payments are finally arriving, but don’t expect much

Remember the hot mess that once was Google+?

What you need to know

• Payouts for the Google+ lawsuit are being issued to claimants.
• The payout only amounts to $2.15, lower than the initial $12 estimate.
• Google was sued over bugs present in the platform between 2015 and 2018.

Former Google+ users are finally getting their due from a lawsuit filed in 2018 against the company: a whopping $2.15.

The suit was filed after it was reported that Google did not disclose a three-year vulnerability that left roughly 50 million customers exposed on the platform. According to the case website, Google denied “any wrongdoing and any liability whatsoever,” claiming that the bugs caused no harm or damage to anyone that used the platform.

However, in 2020, Google agreed to a settlement of $7.5 million that would be distributed among any claimants that used the platform. It was originally estimated at roughly $12 per claim, although that figure was always dependent on the number of people that submitted eligible claims.

According to the case website, nearly 2 million people submitted valid claims in the suit, the deadline of which was October 8 of last year. As pointed out by Ars Technica, distribution of the payments began on August 2nd via PayPal or ACH and will continue until August 14.

A payment was distributed to Ars Technica managing editor Eric Bangeman.

Google+ was a social media platform that was launched in 2011 on the web and the best Android phones as an answer to the growing presence of Facebook. Unfortunately, the platform never quite took off, with the company admitting at the time that “90 percent of Google+ user sessions are less than five seconds.” The platform was eventually shut down, although not before the security vulnerabilities were discovered.

If you submitted a claim, you can likely expect a payout to come your way if you haven’t already received it. Now, what are you going to do with your exorbitant payout?