Facebook’s facial recognition features could cost it billions of dollars

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If you thought Facebook was already having a bad couple weeks, a federal judge just reminded us that things could get a whole lot worse for the company.

A judge in San Francisco ruled Monday that Facebook users in Illinois can proceed with a class action suit against the company over its use of facial recognition software. The suit has the potential to cost the social network billions of dollars in fines.

The lawsuit stems from Illinois’ strict laws around biometric privacy. The state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act allows residents of the state to sue tech companies that don’t adhere to the law, which requires tech companies to obtain prior consent before they collect biometric data. (This is likely why Google’s viral selfie matching feature in its Arts & Culture app didn’t work in the state). Read more…

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