In the USA, a judge in a California federal court has approved a deal with Facebook: For violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, Facebook will pay about 1.6 million Illinois users compensation of about $340 each.
Collection of facial recognition data
The cause of action, initially brought by three people from Illinois, is the collection of facial recognition data without the consent of those affected. Facebook’s Tag Suggestions feature works by using automatic facial recognition to automatically suggest to users who upload photos with multiple people to tag certain people who are most likely to be the others pictured in each photo. What in most U.S. states can be carried out without the consent of the persons concerned is only legal in Illinois under certain conditions – these conditions include, above all, an explicit declaration of consent. The lawsuit filed was later converted to a class action and moved to federal court in California.
Strong Illinois Law
The...
