Facebook Ordered to Pay $650 Million For Violation of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act

Written by: Richard Sheinis, Esq.

The Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) is an Illinois statute that prohibits the use of biometric identifiers or information without prior notification and written consent.   Facebook ran into trouble when a lawsuit was filed in 2015 alleging Facebook violated BIPA by tagging photos using facial recognition without their consent.

Facebook has agreed to pay $650 million to settle this class action lawsuit.  A previous proposal of $550 million was rejected by a judge who deemed the amount to be inadequate.  Other lawsuits accuse Microsoft, Google and Amazon of also violating BIPA by using their facial recognition systems without consent.  Although $650 million would be enough to put most companies out of business, it pales in comparison to the $5 billion Facebook was fined by the FTC for the Cambridge Analytica fiasco.