After reviewing objections, a San Jose federal judge has approved a $9.5-million settlement of a class-action lawsuit over social networking site Facebook's Beacon program that published what users were buying.
Facebook denied any wrongdoing but agreed to end the Beacon program last November.
As part of the settlement, Facebook will finance a "digital trust fund" that will issue more than $6 million in grants to organizations that study online privacy. Over the objections of privacy advocates, Facebook will have a seat on the fund's three-member board. It consists of Chris Jay Hoofnagle, who heads the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology; Tim Sparapani, Facebook's public policy director; and writer Larry Magid.
