Heaptalk, Jakarta — US Federal judge has released its final decision to fine Facebook US$ 650 million over the privacy violation in its biometric feature. This settlement will be delivered to nearly 1.6 million users in the state of Illinois and to parties who support this immense victory.
Starting from 2015, Illinois people took legal action to allegate data privacy violence in Facebook tagging features. According to Jay Edelson, a Chicago attorney who handles the lawsuit, Facebook has created and stored a face template for its users since June 2011 to promote its tagging feature.
Facebook tagging feature works by identifying users’ photos and automatically tagging them to users’ accounts without any consent. This point led Illinois society to take class action concerning the protection of Illinois residents’ privacy.
After four years since the class action first echoed the case, Facebook finally reacted by disabling the feature in 2019. However, the legal process remains ongoing to sue people right who has been harmed for the feature’s activation. This action also aimed to send a message to all companies that privacy violation is not a trivial issue.
“It’s a big deal,” “It sends a pretty clear message that in Illinois, biometric privacy rights are here to stay,” said Edelson, as cited in Yahoo News (27/02/2021)
For settling the lawsuit, Facebook proposed US$500 million in 2020. The judge refused it on the ground that the number is not worth these critical issues. In late February 2021, the case was wounded up in California federal court by verdict was in favor of the plaintiff, the class action.
The court decision stated that Facebook had broken the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). For this reason, Facebook must pay US$ 650 million as compensation. Looking forward, the court allocated US$97.5 million for the attorney’s fee and US$ 915,000 for the expenses. The three named plaintiffs mentioned in the lawsuit will receive $5,000, respectively. The rest will be rewarded to all class action members. The payment will be hand to the receiver within two months unless Facebook proposes an appeal.
This result drives companies to solemnly notice the importance of prioritizing privacy issues in developing technology. In this case, Donato added that the law must not tolerate every privacy violation, even if the perpetrator involves a giant company.
“Overall, the settlement is a major win for consumers in the hotly contested area of digital privacy. The standing issue makes this settlement all the more valuable because Facebook and other big tech companies continue to fight the proposition that a statutory privacy violation is genuine harm.” Wrote Judge Donato as cited in Business Insider, Saturday (28/2/2021).
This situation cannot pull out Facebook from its business area, but it possibly happens to the other technology companies that ignore privacy issues. Therefore, all companies, especially newcomers, should first put privacy issues to avoid the risk of harming or even demolishing the company. (WLN)
