Right now, more than 311,000 Australian Facebook users can apply for a slice of a $50 million compensation fund from tech giant Meta – the largest payment for a breach of Australians’ privacy.

But the clock is ticking. Even if you’re eligible, you only have until December 31 to make your claim. Similar payouts have already begun in the US.

From who’s eligible, to how to make a claim, to how much the eventual payout might be: Here’s what you need to know.

Why so many Australians can apply

The landmark settlement arose from Meta’s involvement in the Cambridge Analytica scandal: A massive data breach in the 2010s, when a British data firm harvested private information from 87 million Facebook profiles worldwide.

It led to a record-breaking US$5 billion penalty (about $A7.7 billion today)

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