Illinois Residents Gets Less than $400 Checks in Settlement for Facebook Lawsuit Over Facial Recognition

Urian B., Tech Times 19 May 2022, 12:05 am

After a lengthy battle in court, millions of residents in Illinois will be able to get a settlement check from Facebook over its facial recognition. The social media giant has agreed to pay $397 in settlement each to the millions of residents over its use of facial recognition technology.

Class-Action Lawsuit Over Facebook's Facial Recognition Started in 2015

According to the story by Engadget, the settlement is a result of a long legal battle over how the company previously used facial technology in its photo-tagging system. The lawsuit has actually been around since 2015.

During that year, the class-action lawsuit was filed and according to its filing, Facebook reportedly broke state privacy law. To expand, the state privacy law forbids biometric data collection for companies without users first being informed, according to Tech Crunch.

Facebook and Instagram's Facial Recognition Tech to No Longer be Used

Ever since then, global criticism followed the company regarding its decision to use facial recognition according to The Guardian. In 2021, the social media's parent company, Meta, decided that for Facebook and Instagram, facial recognition tech will no longer be used.

An article by Vox, however, reminds the public that this does not include whether or not its future products will use facial recognition technology. Despite being filed in Illinois, the lawsuit found its way to the US District Court for Northern California, Facebook's home turf.

Facebook Repeatedly Asked for Dismissal of Lawsuit

The platform's request for the lawsuit dismissal was repeatedly denied by the court. In turn, the court then certified the Illinois class-action lawsuit despite Facebook trying to appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Facebook was ultimately rejected, as per Reuters, and although the initial amount Facebook agreed to pay in settlement was $550 million, it was too small according to a federal judge. In 2021, Facebook agreed to pay a $650 million settlement for its use of facial recognition tech.

Photo-Tagging System Vioilated the State's Biometric Information Privacy Act

The main issue pointed out in court was the photo-tagging system used by Facebook which identifies participants of a video or photo. Illinois residents' attorneys argued that the "Suggested Tags feature violated the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act."

Illinois users who were tagged or posted a photo during that timeline would be eligible to the settlement from Facebook. About 1.6 million residents of Illinois were considered as part of the settlement.

User Threw Away Check Thinking It was Junk Mail

As per redditors, they would get their checks either through the mail or direct deposit but not everyone was able to get their payment. One redditor said that the user and his wife got the payments at different days.

Another user pointed out how they threw their check out due to it being in a brown envelope which led them to think it was junk mail.

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Written by Urian B.