Claims that our social media apps continue to monitor us even when we are no longer using them are widespread on the internet, and that might be for good reason. A suit brought against Facebook, of Meta Platforms (FB  ), alleging that the company tracked, stored, and sold users' data after they had logged out of the app was recently settled by the company for $90 million.

Facebook has denied the allegations but reportedly settled in order to avoid the risks and high costs of a trial. The 2012 case was initially dismissed in 2017 but was brought back in 2020 by a federal appeals court. The court stated that the plaintiffs had the right to attempt to prove that had violated their privacy in order to profit unjustly.

According to the suit, Meta used plug-ins to store the cookies from users' visits to sites with Facebook "like" buttons, even after the users had logged out. This browser history was allegedly used to make profiles that were then sold to advertisers. The plaintiff class includes U.S. Facebook users who visited non-Facebook sites featuring the "like" button functionality, between April 22, 2010, and September 26, 2011.

After the case was revived in 2020, Facebook attempted to bring the suit to the U.S. Supreme Court but failed to persuade the body to take the case. Legal fees are expected to take up 29% of the $90 million settlement.

This isn't the first time Facebook has gotten into trouble over alleged privacy violations. In 2019, the company paid a $5 billion fine to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as a part of an agreement requiring it to implement more robust privacy protections.

More recently, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the social media platform for allegedly collecting facial recognition data without permission from users. According to that case, Facebook gathered users' biometric data from videos and photos those users had uploaded. That information was then allegedly stored and shared with others.

"This is yet another example of Big Tech's deceitful business practices and it must stop. I will continue to fight for Texans' privacy and security," Paxton said in a statement.

The Texas suit is reportedly seeking civil penalties of hundreds of billions of dollars.