Facebook takes issue with judge in opposition to facial recognition case
A US court has ruled on appeal that a 2015 collective facial recognition lawsuit may proceed. Facebook wanted to block that, but the judges did not agree. This privacy case can ultimately lead to high damages.
The ruling mainly focused on whether the complainants had the right to claim damages through a class action under the Biometric Information Privacy Act from the state of Illinois. A lower court had approved that and the three judges of the San Francisco court agree. They see no legal objections to this. Facebook had argued that the complainants had not shown concrete evidence of an invasion of their privacy and that the allegations are so unique that they belong only in individual lawsuits and not in a collective case.
One of the judges said the Illinois law is aimed at protecting people’s concrete privacy interests and because, according to the complainants, Facebook has used biometric data to create a face template for its users, the judges said the company may have their concrete details. interests and private affairs. That was enough for the judges not to block the collective case. This is specifically about facial recognition, including in the form of the tag suggestions that Facebook offers, so that users can automatically mark their friends on previously uploaded photos.
Whether there is actually a privacy violation by Facebook and therefore a violation of the Biometric Information Privacy Act will have to become clear at a later stage. The final amount of damage can be substantial, as this law provides for $1,000 in damages for negligence and up to $5,000 for recklessness or willful violation of the rules. A lawyer told Reuters that the collective case could involve 7 million Facebook users. The ultimate compensation can therefore in theory amount to many billions of dollars.
Facebook said in an email to Reuters that it plans to appeal the ruling. A spokesperson says the company has always been open about using facial recognition technology and that people can always turn it on or off.