Facebook has been ordered by a court to pay between $200 and $400 to more than 1.5 million people, and that number is likely to increase in the future. The settlement is the culmination of a seven-year, $650 million lawsuit filed in Illinois. Several Facebook features, including a “tag suggestion” feature, have allegedly violated the state’s biometric privacy laws.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit say Facebook stored the biometric data of its users without giving them proper notice and consent. The data is used to support features that incorporate facial-recognition technology, including a suggestion for people to tag user-uploaded photos.
The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, which went into effect in 2008, has been described by some law firms as providing the nation’s strongest protections for biometric data. The law sets out a number of rules related to the collection and storage of biometric data, including consent requirements and disclosure rights. It also prohibits profiting from the collection and use of biometric data.
Full-time and part-time Illinois residents whose “face templates” were created and stored by Facebook after June 7, 2011, are considered part of the “collective” and eligible for a partial settlement. Some Illinois residents have already received their checks, and other members of the lawsuit should receive theirs in the coming weeks. The deadline to file a claim as part of this settlement is November 11, 2020.
CNBC also highlighted that similar lawsuits have been filed against Google Photos and Shutterfly in Illinois. The report also noted that food chain Pret A Manger settled a $677 million lawsuit brought by employees whose fingerprints were said to be stored by the company, and claims experts say more privacy lawsuits are on the horizon.
In addition to Illinois, Texas and Washington have similar privacy laws regarding biometric data and could be grounds for more lawsuits in the future. California, Colorado and Virginia will also enact strong data privacy laws in 2023.
However, privacy law professor Matthew Kugler speculates that it may be a while before we see lawsuits across the country. He told CNBC in an interview that for the foreseeable future, litigation will be limited to the state level because it may be a while before “any consensus” on federal legislation is reached. Coogler did predict an increase in lawsuits at the state level, “now people know you can make money on it.”