Facebook Facial Recognition Lawsuit: Social Media giant to pay $650 million settlement fee

Over the past few months, Facebook has been in the news repeatedly for its privacy policies related to user data collection. Recently, the company found itself in the middle of a facial recognition lawsuit in Illinois, United States. Read on to know more about this recent Facebook Lawsuit. 

Facebook Lawsuit Costs Them $650 Million in Settlement 

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As reported by the Guardian, the judge presiding over the Facebook privacy lawsuit in relation to their facial recognition technology has just punished Facebook with $650 million in settlement fees. It was a huge case that is going to set an important precedent for tech companies and their privacy policies in the future. It's a big win in terms of data privacy for their consumers. 

A Chicago attorney, Jay Edelson had sued Facebook in Cook County Circuit Court in the year 2015. He alleged that Facebook's use of the feature of facial recognition tagging was not allowed under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. The lawsuit argued on the fact that Facebook's Tag Suggestion feature which scanned the faces of users in pictures and located the person through facial recognition was illegal in Illinois. Facebook was also accused of storing user biometric data without consent in the lawsuit. 

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This is one of the largest lawsuit settlement ever for a case on user privacy violation. As a result of this settlement, over 1.6 million Facebook users in Illinois will each $345 as settlement for unlawful violation of their personal privacy. This is a major win for consumers when the line between privacy, surveillance and data collection is becoming more blurry each day. The attorney who filed the lawsuit told the Chicago Tribune that the checks for $345 dollars would be in the mail within two months barring any unforeseeable change in the future. 

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Facebook also released a statement saying that they are happy to have reached a settlement and want to move past this matter. Facebook also said they want to do what's best for the community and their shareholders. However, Facebook's new privacy policies are more invasive than ever and if you agree to their latest privacy policies they can collect almost all data on you without impunity. So, be careful when using Facebook and Facebook-owned properties. 

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