By the final settlement ruling, Facebook will pay $550 million to Illinois residents who filed a class action lawsuit against the social media company in 2015. According to The New York Times, each of 1.6 million Illinois citizens who signed the petition will receive $345 from Facebook.
One in five eligible Facebook users in Illinois filed a claim against the tech giant six years ago. They accused Facebook of violating the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The company used the technology of tagging people in photos applying facial recognition without their consent. The Illinois authorities claimed that Facebook violated the rights of at least 6 million residents of the state. Consequently, every fourth Illinois Facebook user applied for a privacy payout.
Previously, Facebook sought to change the class-action status of the lawsuit. However, the US District Court of California rejected the request and ordered the social media giant to pay compensation to each eligible Illinois user to settle the years-long class action case.
Facebook CFO David Wehner said that the company made a concession because it was important for both the network and shareholders to resolve the conflict. According to Jay Edelson, a lawyer who represented Facebook in court, it is one of the largest settlements ever for a privacy violation.
Earlier, Facebook’s management had to deal with issues related to data breaches. In 2015-2016, Cambridge Analitica that helped Donald Trump with his presidential campaign gained access to personal data of 87 million Americans. This led to conflicts and a slew of penalties in several countries.
