Illinois Facebook Users Can Claim Up To $400 In Class-Action Suit (patch.com) 18
Facebook has settled a class action lawsuit that claimed the company collected and stored facial templates for its users between June 7, 2011, and Aug. 19, 2020, when the settlement was approved. "Individuals could be eligible for cash payouts of $200 to $400," reports Patch. From the report: In 2015, lawsuits were filed against Facebook over its use of "face tagging" feature. Plaintiffs claimed that Facebook was collecting biometric information ("face prints") without getting proper consent required by the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. Facebook disputed the allegations. Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge James Donato gave preliminary approval to a $650 million settlement, out of which class members can claim money. Facebook has also agreed to change its practices. It's not known how much individual class members will receive, but Edelson PC predicts an individual will get $200 to $400. A household with four eligible people could receive as much as $800 to $1,600.
To participate in the settlement, a person need only have been a Facebook user located in Illinois for whom Facebook created and stored biometric information after June 7, 2011. Eligible participants must submit a claim form by Nov. 23, 2020. It takes under two minutes to fill out a claim form online or send it in. More information is forthcoming.
To participate in the settlement, a person need only have been a Facebook user located in Illinois for whom Facebook created and stored biometric information after June 7, 2011. Eligible participants must submit a claim form by Nov. 23, 2020. It takes under two minutes to fill out a claim form online or send it in. More information is forthcoming.
I was wrong (Score:3)
When I first heard about Facebook, I thought one of its selling points was that it automatically did face recognition on photos that your friends had taken, then could automatically face-recognize as having you in them and thereby associate them with *your* Facebook account.
Apparently they only added that capability a long time later and people aren't happy about it. What confuses me is that people didn't see it coming; I mean, *Face*book -- it's right in the name.
Re: (Score:2)
Facebook started in 2004.
The big breakthrough in deep NNs that enabled fast and accurate face recognition happened in 2006.
So, no, they didn't do it from the beginning.
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What I recall from ca. 2010 when my usage of it peaked was that the tagging was done manually by the user. I also recall something about specific people being "suggested" as tags, which might have come from automated recognition, which might have come later. But it's all kind of fuzzy, it's been many years. But, no doubt they're doing it automated on the back end for years now, even if the user doesn't see it.
Claim your reward! (Score:1)
UBI (Score:3)
This is how we should implement UBI. Just plunder Facebook.
Lawyers and class action lawsuits (Score:1)
Yet lawyers are the only winners in class action lawsuits. These ones only want a measly $110 million, PLUS costs and expenses.*
Imagine if class action suits actually benefited the class, rather than the lawyers.
Don't get me wrong -- they probably did some work deserving of getting paid. Just not $110 million worth of work.
* http://www.facebookbipaclassac... [facebookbi...action.com]
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A big benefit of class-action lawsuits is deterrence.
Corporations behave better if they face the risk of lawsuits. They fear class actions more than they fear government regulators.
For better or worse, America has outsourced corporate regulation to the private sector.
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If they benefited the class, no lawyer would bother. Class action lawsuits take years and are done on contingency. That means all expenses, hours worked, etc., are all paid by the law fir
This is news all right... (Score:3)
A class action where the aggrieved party actually get some damages worth collecting! Instead of just paying for a lawyer food-fight.
yay! (Score:2)
$400 to the victims, and how much to the lawyers? $65,000,000 ? A modest fee, no doubt.
Bad math (Score:1)
Anybody else remember the nicely-remunerating Equifax settlement that was suddenly worth nothing when tens of millions of people joined the class? Illinois only has 12M residents... but then again you only need to have lived in the state for half the year across the last decade...
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Illinois only? (Score:3)
$400 (Score:2)
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for whom Facebook created and stored biometric (Score:2)
The settlement only applies to those: "for whom Facebook created and stored biometric information "
Good luck determining that. Most people will not file a claim because there is no way to know if your wasting your time or not.