Facebook Agrees to Pay $550 Million to Users in Facial Recognition Lawsuit

If you are a Facebook user in Illinois, Facebook might owe you money.

The social media giant has agreed to pay more than half a billion dollars to settle a class action lawsuit over its facial recognition software.

The lawsuit was filed almost five years ago in Illinois, as the state has among the strictest laws regarding biometrics in the country.

2008 laws mandate that companies must obtain consent before collecting people's data related to facial, fingerprint and iris scans, and must inform them how the data is being used and how long it will be kept; any companies found contravening the law can be sued.

A Federal judge in San Francisco, where the lawsuit was subsequently moved, must now approve the settlement. If it is, it could mean a couple of hundred dollars for the millions of people affected, depending on how many submit a claim.

Facebook's facial recognition software allowed the site to automatically tag users whenever anyone uploaded a photograph of them.

Facebook had argued that the biometric data it collected did not harm individuals, and that there was no grounds to sue under Illinois law; however it ultimately decided to settle the case.

“We decided to pursue a settlement as it was in the best interest of our community and our shareholders to move past this matter," the company said in a statement.

Privacy advocates fervently fight against the storage of biometric information as, unlike a credit card number for example, it cannot be changed once it is compromised.

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