There’s hardly ever such a thing as truly free money. We pay for everything, in some way: with labor, with time, with suffering.
So getting a payment from a tech or social media settlement isn’t exactly free — it’s likely the company messed up in some way and it legitimately owes you that cash — but it certainly can feel like getting free money. And if you’re already using the tech or platform, then you might as well get paid for the issue.
Here are five major settlements you might want to look into — just to see if you’re owed money.
YouTube
In 2019, Google was sued for allegendly collecting data on users under the age of 13. The suit was amended, and re-amended repeatedly, and in January 2025, a judge finally ruled. While the judge only agreed with some of the plaintiff’s claims, they ultimately ruled that Google knowingly “engaged in highly offensive conduct.” Now, Google has agreed to a $30 million settlement (without admitting any wrongdoing), and a settlement claims website is now live.
So, if you or your kids watched YouTube videos between July 1, 2013 to April 1, 2020 and were under the age of 13 at the time, you should file a claim.
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AT&T
AT&T this summer settled data breach lawsuits between 2019 and 2024. If you are an AT&T customer, you might be entitled to some of the $177 million agreement. The company said it would be contacting customers between August and October. If you haven’t been contacted, it might be worth reaching out to check. You can also check out a website devoted to the settlement, which has the proper forms, deadlines, and information you need to claim a settlement.
Pretty much everyone used Facebook at some point, which means you could be due for a payment. Settlement payouts related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal actually began to roll out last month and could go on for several more weeks. There was a deadline in 2023 to submit a claim — to be honest, who could remember if they filed something two years ago — but those who will get a payout should get an email alerting them to the fact that a payment is forthcoming.
Amazon
The retail and tech giant agreed last month to pay $1.5 billion to an estimated 35 million customers over alleged deceptive practices regarding Prime membership. You could be eligible for a payment if you signed up to be a Prime member between 2019-2025 and did so using one of the so-called “challenged enrollment flows.” Certain customers will automatically get paid while others may be sent a claims form by Amazon, depending on their eligibility.
For more information on the Amazon settlement payments, check out Mashable’s coverage.
Anthropic
AI company Anthropic agreed last month to pay authors $1.5 billion over allegations that it used their work to train its model. So yes, you’d have to be one of the authors in the case to get paid by this settlement, but the Books3 dataset at issue in the case contains tens of thousands of works. The judge in the case, however, has expressed reservations about that settlement — so it remains to see what will actually result from it.
In the meantime, more class-action suits against AI companies are likely to come soon, including a recent case involving Apple and allegedly pirated books. You can check to see if your work was included in the notorious Books3 library at The Atlantic’s searchable database.
