Are you a US resident, that has made a purchase online sometime after August 2018? If so, you may be eligible for a stake in Oracle’s $115 million settlement package.
Oracle, one of the biggest tech companies in the world, has agreed to the payout to settle a class action lawsuit that accuses the company of wrongfully collecting online and offline sales data from users without their consent, before selling it to third parties.
With some of the country’s biggest banks, retail businesses, and hospitals relying on Oracle’s database, the company’s pervasive influence separates this case from similar settlements of its kind. Think you might have been affected? Read on to learn more about the case and how to file a claim.
Oracle Agrees to Pay Out $115 Million in Historic Settlement
While you may not have heard of Oracle, there’s a good chance that you interact with its systems on a daily basis.
The multinational tech company operates behind the scenes of the tech industry, providing hardware and software solutions to some of the biggest US companies, including Cisco, Zoom, Airbnb, Uber, Netflix, and JP Morgan to name a few.
Since the company sells this personal data to other companies, the people the data belongs to “lack a direct relationship with Oracle”.
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As a result, the lawsuit claims that they don’t have any way to consent to the information being shared. Oracle is currently denying all wrongdoing but has agreed to pay out $115 million to settle the claims about illegally collected personal information – which includes in-store and online purchase data, as well as geolocations.
Oracle has recently become the target of a class action lawsuit that claims its function as a “worldwide data broker” has enabled it to create a network that tracks and records the personal information of “hundreds of millions of people”.
“This process provides Oracle with a virtual panopticon: Oracle purports to have vision on virtually everything ascertainable in electronic form about Class members, from where they live, to the media they consume, to the things they buy, to the views they hold.” – Oracle lawsuit
Despite the settlement gaining notoriety in 2024, the case actually stretches back over eight years. In 2021, Oracle’s Co-founder Larry Ellison caught flack over a 2016 keynote presentation he made at the company OpenWorld Conference, where he joked about the Oracle ID Graph featuring data belonging to five billion people.
The graph, which was dubbed an ‘illegal panopticon’ in the press, was considered as evidence of the company’s violation of both Californian and US privacy laws. Therefore, if your data was included in Oracle’s ID Graph you could be eligible for a payment.
Are You Eligible For Oracle’s Huge Payout?
Simply put, a lot of people could be eligible for Oracle’s legal settlement. According to the lawsuit, you’ll be eligible if you lived in the United States for a period after August 19, 2019, and your data was “acquired, captured, or otherwise collected by Oracle Advertising technologies or made available for use or sale by or through ID Graph, Data Marketplace, or any other Oracle Advertising product or service.”
Due to the almost omnipresent nature of Oracle in the tech world, if you’re a US resident with an online presence, and have made purchases electronically and in stores at any point after August 2018, there’s a good chance you’ve been impacted.
Unfortunately though, while some claimants will have been notified by email by the Katz-Lacabe v. Oracle Settlement Administrator and sent a confirmation code, lots of impacted users won’t actually know if their data was compromised.
So, if you think your data may have entered the Oracle Database systems after August 19, 2018, we’d recommend filling out a form anyway to find out if you’re eligible for a payout. Even if you’re unsure whether your data may be involved in the lawsuit, you’ve got nothing to lose by firing off a quick application.
How to File a Claim Against Oracle
If you think you fall under any of the criteria listed above, you can submit a claim online using this link. You’re also able to print out and mail the form in if you prefer. The deadline for filing claims is October 17, 2024, so you need to make sure your online or mail-out form is submitted or postmarked before this date.
When filling out the form, you’ll be asked to provide basic information including your name, address, email address, phone number, place of residence, and that you didn’t consent to having your data collected by Oracle.
You’ll also be asked to select a payment method for your funds to be sent to if your claim is successful. There’s a variety of digital or physical options to choose from, including Venmo, Zelle, ACH transfer, or traditional paper check.
How Much Money Could You Get From Oracle’s Payout?
The lawsuit doesn’t specify the exact amount each class member will receive, as the size of payments will depend on how many claimants are approved. Out of the total $115 million sum, attorney fees – of up to $28.75 million – and administrative costs will be deducted. The rest of the total will be divided equally among successful claimants.
If your data was involved in Oracle’s data malpractices, and your application was successful, you will receive your payment after the settlement’s approval hearing on Nov 14. However, there’s also a chance that appeals and objections could delay the process, so we recommend keeping an eye on the story as details emerge.
