Google's $135-million Android settlement: How to claim your money

Have you used an Android phone in the past nine years? Then Google might have to give you up to $100 later this year.

That's because the company reached a preliminary $135 million settlement (without admitting wrongdoing) in a class-action lawsuit called Taylor v. Google LLC, per CNET. The suit alleged that Google used Android users' paid cellular data to transfer information to Google without their permission. Now, users who may have had their data misused can sign up for payments on the official settlement website.

The settlement could include up to 100 million Android mobile users in the United States. If you think you qualify, check the email associated with your Android mobile account for the settlement notice.

Not sure if you're eligible? Here are the criteria:

1. You have to be a real human in the United States

2. You have to have used an Android phone with cellular data at any point between Nov. 12, 2017 and now

3. You can't be a member of Csupo v. Google LLC, a similar class-action lawsuit specifically for Californians

If you meet those requirements (and surely a whole lot of people do), you can enter your payment information on the settlement website. There's a final hearing on June 23 to determine whether or not these payments will actually go out, so you'll know by then if you're getting any money. And no, we don't know exactly how much each affected user will get, though payments are capped at $100. That doesn't mean anyone will actually get $100, though.

While Google has, again, not admitted wrongdoing here, it has agreed to pay out the settlement and will also update its Google Play terms of service regarding passive data transfers using cellular data. But really, the thing that matters here is that you might get a little bit of walking-around money for something you didn't even realize happened several years ago.