Facebook will pay $90 million to settle a privacy lawsuit accusing it of tracking users’ internet activity even after they logged out of the platform. Users accused Facebook of breaching federal and state privacy and bugging laws by using plug-ins to store cookies that tracked the websites containing Facebook’s “like” buttons.

The case had been dismissed in June 2017 but was reopened in April 2020 by a federal appeals court which said users could try to prove the violation of their privacy. Facebook’s effort to convince the US Supreme Court to take the case was unsuccessful. The company denied any wrongdoing but settled to avoid the costs and risks of a trial, according to settlement papers.