Facebook Settles $550 Million Facial Recognition Lawsuit

Facebook has agreed to pay a whopping $550 1000000 to settle a lawsuit for unfair practices of facial recognition technology. The social media giant was defendant of storing facial data for 'Tag Suggestions' without permission thereby violating Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Deed.

The settlement was appear when the tech giant reported fiscal results for the quarter. "We decided to pursue a settlement as it was in the best involvement of our community and our shareholders to move by this matter," said a Facebook spokesman.

According to Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Deed, companies are required to release publicly bachelor written consent earlier collecting critical pieces of information including fingerprints, and facial information. The police force provides grounds for users to sue companies for up to $5,000.

The case was taken to courtroom by iii companies namely Edelson PC, Labaton Sucharow LLP, and Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP. The first lawsuit was filed by Edelson PC back in 2015.

Here'due south what Jay Edelson, the plaintiff lawyer had to say regarding the lawsuit: "Biometrics is one of the two principal battlegrounds, along with geolocation, that will ascertain our privacy rights for the next generation. We are proud of the stiff team we had in place that had the resolve to fight this critically important case over the last five years. Nosotros hope and expect that other companies will follow Facebook's lead and pay pregnant attention to the importance of our biometric data."

The settlement is pending approval of the district court. It is worth noting that this is the largest cash settlement e'er for a privacy-related lawsuit, which is good news for all the privacy enthusiasts out there.