Facebook sued for tagging users' faces without consent
Facebook was sued for collecting and storing the facial data of its users' without consent, thereby violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) of 2008. Lead plaintiff Nimesh Patel sued Facebook in one of three consolidated class actions in 2015, claiming the social network started mapping users’ faces for its Tag Suggestions feature in 2011. The plaintiffs said Facebook did so without their permission and failed to inform them how long their data would be stored as required by BIPA. Nearly 1.6 million affected Facebook users in Illinois submitted claims under the class-action suit. The case has been widely recognised as the first major lawsuit on the issue. ➕ April 2018. A US federal judge ruled that Facebook must face a class-action lawsuit. ➕ September 2019. Facebook announced it would replace Tag Suggestions with its broader face recognition setting, which identifies people's faces in photos for various uses, not just tagging. ➕ July 2020. Facebook agreed to settle the case by paying USD 650 million, with the judge concluding that the practice "i nvades an individual’s private affairs and concrete interests. " ➕ September 2021. U S District Judge James Donato approved the settlement . The settlement amount was initially set at USD 550 million and was increased to USD 650 million following negotiations. ➕ November 2021. Meta announced the shutdown of its facial recognition system, stating it would delete the "facial recognition templates" of more than a third of its users. System 🤖 Tag Suggestions Documents 📃 Facebook (2019). An Update about Facial Recognition on Facebook Operator: Meta/Facebook Developer: Meta/Facebook Country: USA Sector: Media/entertainment/sports/arts Purpose: Suggest friends to tag Technology: Facial recognition Issue: Privacy Regulation ⚖️ Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) 2008 Legal, regulatory 👩🏼⚖️ EPIC. Patel v Facebook EPIC (2011). In re Facebook and the Facial Identification of Users
- Date it happened
- 2015-04-01
- Organisation involved
- Product, system or model
- Tag Suggestions
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