Facebook agrees to pay $650M to settle facial recognition lawsuit
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The lawsuit came about as a result of a state law in Illinois, which obliges companies to get permission before using facial recognition technology on their customers.
Facebook Inc raised its settlement offer by $100 million to $650 million related to a lawsuit that claimed it illegally collected and stored biometric data for millions of users without their consent.
The social media giant reached a $550 million settlement in January regarding the same lawsuit, which started in 2015, when Illinois users accused the company of violating the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act in collecting biometric data.
This comes after a federal judge balked at the original proposal on the grounds it did not adequately punish Facebook.
The settlement covers any Facebook user in Illinois whose picture appeared on the site after 2011.
The lawsuit came about as a result of a state law in Illinois, which obliges companies to get permission before using facial recognition technology on their customers.
The final Facebook settlement is likely to be approved later this year, meaning Illinois residents will be poised to collect a payout in 2021.
According to the new document, those users can each expect to receive between $200 and $400 depending on how many people file a claim.