Facebook Illinois Privacy Lawsuit Settled for $650m

In Illinois, USA, a federal judge has approved settlement of the 2015 lawsuit alleging that Facebook tagged the faces of users and used other biometric data without their permission. The social network will pay $650m, including 'at least' $345 for each of the class action's c.1.6m plaintiffs.

US district judge James Donato said the figure was one of the largest ever for a privacy violation, and called it 'a major win for consumers in the hotly contested area of digital privacy', and noted that 'Facebook and other big tech companies continue to fight the proposition that a statutory privacy violation is a genuine harm'.

The state's Biometric Information Privacy Act says private entities may not collect, store or use biometric identifiers or information without individuals' prior notification and written consent, and the suit alleged that from 2011 the firm had been doing just that, creating and storing face templates so as to identify individuals in photos.

Facebook, which had offered $100m less to settle the suit just over a year ago, said this week in a statement: 'We are pleased to have reached a settlement so we can move past this matter, which is in the best interest of our community and our shareholders'.

The photo-tagging system has since been changed.