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Over the past few years, Americans have gotten a few checks sent their way. From the stimulus checks to refunds from insurance companies to other direct payments from the government. Now, more checks are likely heading out to thousands of people and this time, the money is coming from Apple.
It's all part of a settlement the tech giant agreed to after they were sued for breaching their contract with users. The class action suit stems from the company's iCloud storage. While they offer 5GB of space for free, iPhone and iPad owners who need more have to pay at least $0.99 a month for a subscription. It turns out that the company might have stored that data on third-party servers, which would be a breach of contract. Rather than fight the charges in court, the company has decided to settle for $14.8 million, though they deny any wrongdoing.
So what does that mean? Well, anyone who paid for an iCloud subscription between September 16, 2015 and January 31, 2016 is probably owed money from Apple. If you are one of those people, you don't even have to do anything to get paid - if you have a US mailing address associated with your iCloud plan, the payment will automatically go to the Apple account attached to it. If you aren't a member anymore, you'll get a check. By accepting the settlement, you give up the right to sue Apple for this alleged breach, but you can always opt out by May 23 if you'd rather try to take them on in court.
Nothing is official yet - a final approval hearing takes place on August 4. As of now, there is no word on how much each person will get or when the payments will come. You can learn more about the settlement here.