Big news for anyone who had the Tim Hortons app between April 2019 and September 2020: your geolocation data may or may not have been used without your full consent.

These allegations, presented in a class action lawsuit against Tim Hortons, have yet to be proven. But Tim Hortons has offered to settle, with each eligible person receiving (drum roll please)…one free cup of coffee, and one pastry. Yes, for real.

If these generous gifts don’t appeal to you with their stunning retail values of $6.19 and $2.39, respectively, you’re not alone. Canadians have taken to Twitter to express their bemusement, including James McLeod.

In a later tweet, the story is described as reaching "Beaverton territory" – too goofy to be true. And if the class action suit applicant is right, then McLeod may have a point — a person could be considered within their rights to deem the situation goofy if Tim Hortons really was violating privacy laws by illegally collecting geolocation data without adequate notice, and decided without a hint of irony that one (1) hot coffee and one (1) pastry per affected person is enough.

The settlement also would involve Tim Hortons permanently deleting any geolocation data it gathered from affected customers during the dates in question. This means that any illegally acquired data couldn’t be used going forward, which seems like a good thing.

It’s worth keeping in mind that all of these allegations remain unproven, and Tim Hortons has continued to deny any wrongdoing. They could very well be settling to simply avoid a costly court process, instead of trying to avoid the court findings that they did, in fact, break the law. At the moment, MTL Blog truly cannot say.

Further details on how to claim your sad little coffee and pastry will come if the settlement is approved by the court. This decision is expected to take place on September 6 at the Montreal Courthouse.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.