TikTok deal worth a cup of coffee rued as too puny

A proposed settlement by TikTok in a privacy lawsuit, amounting to RM378mil, might be enough compensation to buy just a cup of coffee once divided among the complainants. — AP Photo

A proposal to settle privacy lawsuits with the video app TikTok might give users enough compensation to buy a cup of coffee — and that’s just not good enough, a lawyer representing an objector to the accord told a judge.

Those supporting the US$92mil (RM378mil) settlement justify it by referring to deals reached more than a decade ago, the lawyer, Ryan Andrews, said at a hearing on Monday. Andrews is a partner at Edelson PC, which represented plaintiffs in a class-action biometric privacy suit that cost Facebook US$650mil (RM2.67bil) and saw 22% of class members, or almost 1.6 million Facebook users, file compensation claims.