Illinois Facebook Users Will Receive $350 From Settlement

Illinois Facebook users will be receiving roughly $350 from the landmark privacy case against the social media giant.

In January 2020, Facebook tentatively agreed to a $550 million settlement in an Illinois class-action lawsuit over the state’s biometric privacy law, with the final amount reaching $650 million. The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act prohibits private companies from collecting or using biometric data — such as facial recognition, voiceprint or fingerprint data — without written notification and written consent.

In the first true test of the law, the Illinois class-action suit against Facebook took the company to task for violating that law. Facebook uses biometric data in a number of ways, including using facial recognition for photo tagging recommendations.

According to the Chicago Tribune, some 1.6 million Illinois Facebook users will be receiving payments to the tune of $350 each. The payments were originally estimated to be closer to $400, but an additional 200,000 claims lowered the amount.

Either way, the settlement should serve as a warning to companies to do a better job of respecting their users’ privacy.