How Californians can cash in on $27.5M Thomson Reuters settlement payout
OAKLAND, Calif. - Most Californians are now eligible for a class action settlement claim and could receive an estimated $19 to $48, after a $27.5 million was reached between two Oakland activists and Thomson Reuters over its Clear platform.
U.S. District Court Judge Edward M. Chen tentatively approved the settlement in the Northern District of California on Oct. 11. Chen will decide whether to finally approve the settlement on Feb. 13, 2025.
The law firms, Gibbs Law Group and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, filed the lawsuit in 2020 on behalf of Cat Brooks and Rasheed Shabazz, alleging that Thomson Reuters collected millions of California residents’ personal and confidential information, and then it sold access to it without their knowledge or consent.
Thomson Reuters is best known for its news agency, Reuters, and its online legal-research service, Westlaw.
But the company makes money in another, lesser-known way: It collects photos, identifying information and personal data – without their consent – and sells that information to law enforcement, corporations and government agencies through a platform called Clear, the suit alleges.
The company advertises that Clear enables its users to access "both surface and deep web data to examine intelligence" about people "not found in public records or traditional search engines."
"Because of CLEAR, Californians' identities are up for sale without their knowledge," the suit states, "let alone consent."
The company, which did not admit wrongdoing, also agreed to limit the data it keeps on state residents and to make that data easier to delete.
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Brooks founded the Anti-Police Terror Project in Oakland and Shabaaz is a creative cultural communicator and was a board member at the Alameda Museum.
In the suit, Brooks said that she has been a target of white supremacist groups because of her activism in the Black and brown communities, and she is very worried about her personal identity being shared.
"The settlement accomplishes what I hoped for when I decided to bring this case," Shabazz said in a statement. "It makes it easier for Californians to learn about CLEAR. It makes it easier for Californians to get their information out of CLEAR. And it requires Thomson Reuters to take steps to be protective of Californians’ privacy while they operate CLEAR."
Brooks added: "This settlement will help other Californians learn about CLEAR and more easily remove their information from CLEAR and the sources that supply it."
Brooks and Shabazz are set to win $5,000 each, pending the judge’s approval.
The deadline to file a claim is Dec. 6. Anyone who has lived in California anytime since December 3, 2016, may qualify. Learn more and file a claim here: