Facebook data breach: Affected users entitled to $17,500 compensation each, say experts

Following the public uproar, Zuckerberg apologised in an interview with CNN.

"This was a major breach of trust and I'm really sorry. We have a basic responsibility to protect people's data and if we can't do that, we don't deserve to have the opportunity to serve people. Our responsibility now is to make sure this doesn't happen again. I've been working to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure this doesn't happen again. The good news is that the most important actions to prevent this from happening again today we have already taken years ago. But we also made mistakes, there's more to do, and we need to step up and do it. I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I'm responsible for what happens on our platform.

"I'm serious about doing what it takes to protect our community. While this specific issue involving Cambridge Analytica should no longer happen with new apps today, that doesn't change what happened in the past. We will learn from this experience to secure our platform further and make our community safer for everyone going forward. I want to thank all of you who continue to believe in our mission and work to build this community together. I know it takes longer to fix all these issues than we'd like, but I promise you we'll work through this and build a better service over the long term," he had said.

Well, trouble doesn’t end there for the company as experts across the world are coming up with claims of compensation which the affected users are entitled to. While some experts assume the compensation amount to be around GBP 500, experts such as Maureen Mapp reckon the amount to be as high as GBP 12,500.

Dr Maureen Mapp, Professor of Law said, "Assuming each one of them brought a claim for compensation for distress caused by the data breach...each individual may be awarded £12,500 (USD 17,500 approx) as damages."

The professor went on to say that the company have to foot a bill of up to GBP 625 billion (USD 870 billion approx) as a result. This is provided the users decided to bring the claims against the company and the claims are held up in a court of law.

Meanwhile, David Barda, a data protection lawyer, assumes a more modest compensation amount. "I think a much more realistic figure is GBP 500 (USD 700) per claimant," he said. "The amount of compensation will depend on the level of distress suffered, but Facebook could be facing claims of up to GBP 500 (USD 700) per Facebook user if those users were able to demonstrate their distress."

The company, which hit a peak valuation of USD 561 billion on February 2, hit a bottom patch of less than USD 442 billion following the data scandal.