When it comes to privacy laws, Illinois has the strictest biometric privacy laws in the states.
In case you’re curious, biometric information includes the data from facial, fingerprint, and iris scans.
A federal lawsuit against Facebook explained that Facebook was using its facial tagging feature in the photos to identify users without their consent.
Even though that’s an active feature for most of the people using Facebook, Illinois users complained that it violated their privacy rights and the law – technically.
To end this lawsuit, Facebook decided to pursue a settlement of $550 million to all the users affected by the privacy breach. A federal court judge will have to approve the settlement and the ones eligible (or who claim) will get their share.
Of course, the court will be waiting for a number of claims to approve the settlement. And, when it does, everyone eligible will be notified. Without a doubt, everyone should easily get a couple of hundred dollars out of the settlement but we can only comment on the amount after the claims are made.
Even if Facebook assured that the biometric information (Facial scan) for the photo-tagging feature was harmless – the users continued with the lawsuit and concluded with a settlement to prove their point. So, it is indeed an exciting news for privacy advocates.
Filed in . Read more about Facebook, Privacy and Settlement.