Facebook spent $650 million to settle facial recognition lawsuit
Meta’s faced its fair share of criticism over the years for its facial recognition practices, but it’s a 2015 Illinois lawsuit that resulted in some of the longest-lasting monetary damage. That lawsuit alleged the company violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) when it automatically tagged Facebook users via facial recognition without their prior consent.
Facebook has since disabled its automatic tagging feature but that wasn’t enough to stave off a settlement. Last year, the company agreed to pay up to $650 million to settle the suit. As part of the settlement, Illinois residents caught up in the company’s automatic tagging feature will reportedly receive at least $345 each in payouts.
