Facebook Adds $100 Million To Landmark Facial Recognition Settlement Payout

Facebook has agreed to pay a total of $650 million in a landmark class action lawsuit over the company's unauthorized use of facial recognition, a new court filing shows. From a report: The filing represents a revised settlement that increases the total payout by $100 million and 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. According to the new document, those users can each expect to receive between $200 and $400 depending on how many people file a claim.

The case represents one of the biggest payouts for privacy violations to date, and contrasts sharply with other settlements such as that for the notorious data breach at Equifax -- for which victims are expected to received almost nothing. The Facebook lawsuit came about as a result of a unique state law in Illinois, which obliges companies to get permission before using facial recognition technology on their customers.

Money hunney

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Follow the money. Who gets it? And who gets some downstream in political donations for creating the 54,345th thing you can sue over?

Nah, that has nothing to do with it. Nevermind.

Re:

[BringsApples]

Exactly. "Who gets the money?" I'm 100% certain that my face has been logged, categorized, sold and used 100 times now for ...whatever, yet I've been, since day 1, an EXTREME critic of facebook. But I won't get a dime, nor will I get to sue them now. Yay democracy!

Re:

[Randseed]

Exactly. "Who gets the money?" I'm 100% certain that my face has been logged, categorized, sold and used 100 times now for ...whatever, yet I've been, since day 1, an EXTREME critic of facebook. But I won't get a dime, nor will I get to sue them now. Yay democracy!

Same here. The only reason I ever joined Facebook was because I had to because a group of idiots were using it to organize some work events I needed to go to. I'll never see a dime either. I have to agree with the AC who keeps posting horrible things to do to Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg is the lowest of the low and beyond contempt.

Re:

[BringsApples]

I have to agree with the AC who keeps posting horrible things to do to Zuckerberg.

Don't stoop to that level, or you're just taking the bait. It's the malice that Facebook is after. Besides, Zuckerberg isn't the one running the show.

Re:

[MattskEE]

You apparently didn't even read the summary. The people who get the money are Illinois Facebook users:

The settlement covers any Facebook user in Illinois whose picture appeared on the site after 2011. According to the new document, those users can each expect to receive between $200 and $400 depending on how many people file a claim.

Idiot headline

[nospam007]

I imagined he had given a 100 mil tip because of a bad conscience.

Then I did the newbie thing and actually RTFS.

If I could just buy crimes from the police ...

[BAReFO0t]

I'd commit crimes all the time too!

Kidding. I'm not a psychopath.

Class action payouts

[Solandri]

other settlements such as that for the notorious data breach at Equifax -- for which victims are expected to received almost nothing.

Class actions are broken. Because the lawyers litigating them get a percentage of the total payout, once the class action picks up more than about a million plaintiffs, there's little to no incentive for the lawyers to fight for a decent payout per plaintiff. Class actions should be revised so that the lawyer payout::

• Scales more prominently with how much each plaintiff re

Re:

[tlhIngan]

Because the lawyers litigating them get a percentage of the total payout, once the class action picks up more than about a million plaintiffs, there's little to no incentive for the lawyers to fight for a decent payout per plaintiff.

Why should they? A class action is done because it covers one gaping hole in the law - there are a lot of times where an individual won't file a lawsuit because it isn't worth the time or money. Think how much it costs to file a lawsuit - after your time off, filing fees and all

$55 per user minus attorneys fees.

[micheas]

With 12.6 million people in the state of Illinois, and about 70% of Americans having a Facebook account that comes to about $55 per user.

Assume that the courts are only going to allow 20% for attorney's fees and not the normal 30%, you are looking at $110, million for the attorneys and $44 or so per user.

It's still pretty similar to Equifax.

Let's actually call this what it is...

[Ceseuron]

Facebook is paying about .095% ($650,000,000 per TFA) of their current $683.41 BILLION dollar net worth. In other words, this isn't even a drop that can go into a bucket. It's barely a line item on some Facebook bean counter's ledger. Facebook will just write the check and it will be business as usual.

If the purpose of these lawsuits is intended to discourage bad business behavior like this, then it's time to start fining companies like Facebook in double digit percentages of their net worth so that the fin

just wondering...

[codeButcher]

So in addition to having some Illinois residents' recognized faces in a database, FB now get to add a mailing address and/or banking details to each record? Or up to who will it be to dish out the payments to the affected people?