Facebook deals a $ 650 million settlement for privacy violations

US media reported that on February 26 local time, a federal judge officially approved the agreement to address Facebook users’ privacy violations, agreeing to the social networking giant. Settling the class action by paying 650 million USD.

Facebook is accused of collecting and storing user facial information.

Previously, Facebook was accused of collecting and storing an individual user’s facial information without prior notice or without the user’s consent, in violation of the Biometric Information Privacy Act of state of Illinois. A total of about 1.6 million Facebook users submitted a claim. All claimants will receive at least 345 USD under the sequence of settlement.

Judge James Donato of the District Court of Northern California wrote in its ruling on the settlement of the settlement, “ Regardless by any standards, the $ 650 million settlement is a case in a class action lawsuit. this biometric information ”. He believes there is a fierce play between all sectors in the industry over data and digital privacy, and the settlement is a big win for consumers.

A Facebook representative issued a statement: “We are delighted to be able to successfully resolve this issue through mediation, in the best interest of our community and shareholders,” said Facebook. all allegations of misconduct.

The lawsuit began in 2015. Facebook agreed to reach a $ 550 million settlement in January 2020 and then agreed to increase the compensation to $ 650 million at the request of the judge. The deadline for Facebook users to submit a request is 11/23/2020. In the approval order, the court also ruled that Facebook must pay $ 97.5 million in legal fees and nearly $ 1 million in other costs to the three law firms.

Under the settlement, Facebook will set the user’s default “facial recognition” option to “off” and delete all existing face data and stored data of users participating in the lawsuit. can. If the users participating in the lawsuit don’t do any Facebook activity within three years, Facebook will also remove their face patterns.

This is one of the largest privacy lawsuits in history. With the industry’s growing interest in personal data and privacy protection, many states in the US have enacted stricter laws that protect user privacy at the local level. Illinois is one of the states with the most stringent protections for user privacy.

The state-built Biometric Information Privacy Act specifically protects biometric data such as fingerprints, facial recognition scanning and retinal scanning. It is also the only state in the US that has a law that allows people to claim compensation for unauthorized data mining.

In fact, solving user privacy issues is not new to Internet companies. Currently, laws and regulations in the global Internet are still being explored. Many Internet and technology companies have been subjected to collective lawsuits by consumers around the world, many of whom choose to settle those legal disputes through mediation.

Previously, TikTok was also accused of illegally obtaining and sharing personal data of users in the state. On February 24, local time, TikTok reached a settlement agreement, with settlement amount being 92 million USD.

As for the settlement, TikTok said that while the company disagrees with the claims in the lawsuit, it believes the settlement as soon as possible is in line with its original intention to serve the majority of users. “Instead of participating in lengthy lawsuits, we want to focus on creating a safe and enjoyable experience for the TikTok community,” said a TikTok spokesperson.