Facebook to pay US users $838m in facial recognition tag suggestion class action

After nearly six years of trudging through court, Facebook has been ordered to pay a fine worth less than three days of revenue.

After an almost six-year court battle, Facebook has been fined a little over two days of revenue for breaking a US state law that requires companies to get permission before using facial recognition.

Central to the class action lawsuit is Facebook’s use of facial recognition technology to recognise and identify people in photos and suggest you “tag” them so they and their friends can see it too.

The feature used facial recognition to suggest tags.

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On Friday, a Californian federal judge ruled that violated the state of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act which prevents companies using things like a scan of your face or fingerprints to identify you without your permission.

Illinois’ biometric laws are among the strictest in the country, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The lawsuit was initially brought in April 2015 by Chicago lawyer Jay Edelson on behalf of his client Carlo Licata.

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Facebook's facial recognition use changed in 2017.

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Close to 7 million people in Illinois use Facebook and a little over a fifth of them (1.6 million) joined the lawsuit when it became a class action one after it was moved to the federal court.

They’re set to receive at least $US345 ($A444), while the three named plaintiffs, including Mr Licata, will get $US5,000 ($A6447).

As is common, the big winner in the class action was the lawyers and the legal system, with the presiding judge including $US97.5 million ($A125.7 million) in lawyer fees and $US915,000 ($A1.17 million) expenses as part of the $US650 million ($A838.1 million) Facebook agreed to pay.

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An image from a Facebook blog post about its use of facial recognition.

Mr Edelson said the case victory “sends a pretty clear message that in Illinois, biometric privacy rights are here to stay”.

US District Judge James Donato said the “landmark result” was a “major win for consumers in the hotly contested area of digital privacy” and ordered Facebook to pay the members of the class action suit “as expeditiously as possible”.

Last year Facebook reported just under $US86 billion ($A110.9 billion) in revenue.

The $US650 million fine ($A838.1 million) represents less than three days of revenue.