Meta is currently compensating users in Illinois for using facial recognition by Facebook without their consent. In 2015, those affected filed a class action lawsuit against Meta, then Facebook. The reason for this was Facebook’s practice of storing and automatically analyzing user photos in order to tag people on them if necessary. The Biometric Information Privacy Act in the US state of Illinois states that automatic face recognition may only be used with the user’s explicit consent.
The parties to the dispute had already agreed on a settlement at the beginning of 2021: Meta should pay a total of 650 million US dollars to those affected. With approximately 1.6 million Illinois Facebook users participating in the class action lawsuit, they will each receive $397 each. As the NZZ reports, most of them apparently get the money via PayPal. But if you didn’t specify a digital payment option, you’ll get an inconspicuous brown envelope with a check. When asked by heise online, Meta stated that the company was not currently commenting on the subject.
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