- The $ 650 million deal is one of the largest in a privacy lawsuit in the United States.
- The lawsuit alleged that Facebook violated an Illinois law that prohibits the collection of biometric data without consent.
- About 1.6 million applicants will receive a payment of at least $ 345, the suit said.
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A federal judge approved an agreement in which Facebook will pay $ 650 million to users who sued the social media company for its markup feature.
The deal, which is one of the largest in a privacy lawsuit, was a “historic result,” US District Judge James Donato of the Northern District of California said in his order on Friday. About 1.6 million people who joined the process will receive a payment of at least $ 345, the process said.
“Overall, the deal is a major victory for consumers in the highly contested area of digital privacy,” wrote Judge Donato. “The ongoing issue makes this deal even more valuable because Facebook and other major technology companies continue to struggle with the proposition that a breach of legal privacy is genuine harm.”
The class action case was first filed in Illinois in 2015. Facebook users claimed that the company violated the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act, which prohibits a private entity from collecting, storing or using biometric identifiers or information without prior notification and written consent.
The lawsuit claimed that Facebook created and stored a face model for Illinois users as of June 2011, as part of its appeal to promote the tagging – or identification – of individuals in photos. “Class members claimed that Facebook collected and stored their biometric data – that is, digital scans of their faces – without prior notice or consent,” the agreement said.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the completion of the process. The social media giant fought the lawsuit, saying it had always released its facial recognition technology. He also said that users have the option to turn it off.
This is not the first time that Facebook has been resisted by its facial recognition feature. In 2019, Facebook began requiring users to choose to use its facial recognition tool, after the FTC fined the company $ 5 billion for its participation in the Cambridge Analytica privacy breach, as previously reported by Insider.
Facebook originally tried to settle the Illinois suit for $ 550 million, but the judge presiding over the case rejected the offer.