US judge approves Facebook privacy settlement

A US judge on Monday granted final approval to Facebook's $20 million settlement of a lawsuit over targeted advertising despite objections that the deal did not go far enough to protect children's privacy.

Five plaintiffs filed a class action against Facebook in 2011, saying the social networking giant's "Sponsored Stories" program shared users' "likes" of certain advertisers with friends without paying them or allowing them to opt out.

A "Sponsored Story" is an advertisement that appears on a member's Facebook page and generally consists of a friend's name, profile picture and an assertion the person "likes" the advertiser.

The case has highlighted tension between privacy concerns and Facebook's drive to monetize user content.

Under the terms of the settlement, Facebook would pay $20 million to compensate class members, and promised to give users more control over how their content is shared - changes which plaintiff lawyers estimate to have a value of up to $145 million. Facebook charged advertisers nearly $234 million for Sponsored Stories between January 2011 and August 2012, court filings show.