Facebook to pay $650 million settlement over US privacy dispute

A US federal judge has given final approval to Facebook’s $650 million payment to settle a privacy dispute between the California group and 1.6 million users in the US state of Illinois.

The decision was issued on Friday, according to documents
seen by AFP on Sunday.

Chicago attorney Jay Edelson sued Facebook in 2015, alleging
the social network illegally collected biometric data to identify faces in
violation of a 2008 Illinois privacy law.

At the end of January 2020, Facebook agreed to pay $550
million after it failed to get the lawsuit — filed as a class action in 2018
— dismissed.

But in July 2020 the judge in the case, James Donato, ruled
that the amount was insufficient.

During the trial, it emerged that Facebook was violating
Illinois law by storing biometric data — digital scans of people’s faces, in
support of its face-tagging feature — without users’ consent.

In 2019, Facebook proposed that the facial recognition
feature be optional only.

According to Donato, the regulation is “a landmark
result” and represents a “major win for consumers in the hotly
contested area of digital privacy.”

“It is one the largest settlements ever for a privacy
violation,” he commented, noting that plaintiffs will receive at least
$345 each in compensation.

Facebook was not immediately available to comment on the
decision.

Article source: https://www.samaa.tv/technology/2021/03/facebook-to-pay-650-million-settlement-over-us-privacy-dispute/