A federal judge has given final approval to a $ 650 million private settlement phase on Facebook on Friday, ordering the 1.6 million class members in Illinois who file claims to pay as soon as possible.
Chicago attorney Jay Edelson sued Facebook in 2015 in Cook Circuit Court, claiming that the use of face recognition on the platform was not permitted under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. The lawsuit alleges that Facebook’s Tag Suggestions tool, which scanned faces on user photos and offered suggestions about who the person could be, stored biometric data without users’ permission, in violation of Illinois law.
The case became a lawsuit in 2018. In 2019, Facebook only made face recognition on the platform.
According to the order of Judge James Donato of the Northern District of California, the three plaintiffs in the case will each receive $ 5,000 and others in the class will receive at least $ 345 each. Donato said the settlement was an “excellent result” and a “great victory for consumers in the passionate realm of digital privacy.”
“We are delighted that we have reached a settlement so that we can move beyond this matter, which is in the best interests of our community and our shareholders,” Facebook said in a statement.
“It’s a big problem,” Edelson said. The Chicago Tribune. “It sends a clear message that biometric privacy rights in Illinois are here to stay.”