CIOInsider India Magazine

The US District Judge James Donato finalized payment settlement amount of $650 million to be paid by Facebook to resolve privacy dispute between the social media giant and 1.6 million Illinois users.

In a statement to AFP, a Facebook spokesperson reported, “we are delighted to have reached a settlement so we can move forward, which is in the best interest of our community and shareholders”.

It all began when Facebook illegally collected biometric data which recognizes faces and this defied the 2008 Illinois privacy law where a Chicago attorney named Jay Edelson filed a lawsuit against the act in 2015.

The social media giant then gave in to pay a sum of $550 million in January 2020, but during July 2020, Judge James Donato ruled it out as the amount proved insufficient.

Through court proceedings, it was revealed that the social media giant had stored digital scans of people’s faces without their consent through its face-tagging feature. The court ruled that the action was illegal against Illinois’ 2008 privacy law. Later this face-tagging feature was made optional in 2019.

This in fact is not only a major win for the user of the platform, but also is one of the largest settlements in the history of digital privacy violation. The plaintiffs, however, will receive a compensation of $345 each.