NEW YORK (US) – Facebook Inc on Wednesday secured preliminary approval from a US federal court to settle a lawsuit which claimed it collected and stored biometric data of millions of users without their approval.
The social media giant last month raised its compensation offer by $100 million to $650 million over the lawsuit in which Illinois users accused Facebook of violating the US state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act.
Judge James Donato wrote in an order filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California that the new settlement resolved the court’s concerns and led to the first stage approval of the settlement.
“Preliminary approval of the amended stipulation of class action settlement, Dkt. No. 468, is granted, and a final approval hearing is set for January 7, 2021,” the judge said in the eight-page order.
The lawsuit alleges that Facebook violated the state’s law through its “Tag Suggestions” allowing users to recognise their Facebook friends from photos uploaded previously. It was filed in 2015.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field