CHICAGO (AP) – Facebook has agreed to a $550 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit that accuses it of violating the rights of millions of Illinois users by harvesting their biometric data without permission.
The settlement, which still needs judicial approval, could be bad news for other tech companies being sued under the state’s unique 2008 law that allows individuals to sue in such instances.
The law was passed in reaction to the collapse of a company whose assets, including its customers’ biometric data, was expected to be auctioned off.
Privacy advocates hail the law as the nation’s strongest form of user protection in the commercial use of such data.
