Facebook has agreed to a $550 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit that accuses it of violating the rights of millions of Illinois users by harvesting their biometric data without permission.
Facebook shares plummet after $550 million privacy settlement
Attorneys who focus on privacy law predict that the Facebook settlement — if approved by a federal judge — will trigger a new round of lawsuits and make the targets of existing ones more likely to settle. Illinois' legal landscape also could shape debates over privacy protection in other states and in Congress, particularly about whether individuals should have the right to sue over violations.
It also gave Illinois residents the right to sue for $1,000 over negligent violations and $5,000 for intentional violations. Facebook only changed the technology last year. The tag suggestion tool was replaced a broader facial recognition setting, which is turned off by default. Illinois is one of three states that have laws governing the use of biometric data. But the other two, Texas and Washington, don't permit individual lawsuits, instead delegating enforcement to their attorneys general.
Facing Illinois' law, some companies opt out of the state. Sony, for instance, refuses to sell its “aibo” robot dog to Illinois residents and says the device's ability to behave differently toward individual people depends on facial recognition technology.
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