Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP)
According to a story in the Chicago Tribune, Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) has settled a class-action lawsuit with the State of Illinois for $35 million over allegations that the company improperly collected user data through the use of facial recognition technology.
Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) was sued for allegedly keeping biometric data without users’ permission through the usage of its filters and lenses, which the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) prohibits. Companies are obligated by state law to give customers a written notice explaining why and how long their biometric data will be stored.
This law is unprecedented in giving individuals the right to sue corporations suspected of breaking the law. Those who lived in Illinois after November 17, 2015, and utilized Snapchat’s augmented reality features, may be entitled to a portion of the settlement, which ranges from $58 to $117.
Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) has maintained that its lenses do not gather personally identifiable information or facilitate facial recognition. Out of an abundance of caution, Snapchat had provided a consent warning within the app to users in Illinois earlier this year.
Snap Is Under Pressure Just Like Other Tech Giants
Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) is the most recent internet behemoth to be fined under BIPA, joining the ranks of companies like Meta Platforms (META) and Alphabet (GOOGL) -owned Google. In June, Google paid $100 million to end a class action lawsuit over the company’s facial recognition technology in Google Photos. According to the complaint, the firm broke BIPA by allowing users to group faces together in Google Photos.
As part of a similar BIPA class action lawsuit settlement in 2021, Facebook agreed to pay $650 million. The claim concerned Facebook’s facial tagging tool. Some Facebook users in Illinois got over $400 in the mail this spring.
In May, avatars and AR effects were among the augmented reality items that Meta took down from Facebook and Instagram in Illinois. This week, Meta settled a lawsuit for $37.5 million that claimed the internet giant had illegally tracked users’ locations in violation of California law and users’ right to privacy. Users who disabled location services on Facebook claimed the firm nevertheless targeted adverts to them using their IP addresses.
On Tuesday, a federal judge in Illinois accepted a $92 million class action lawsuit settlement between the Chinese short-form video service TikTok and its users. Claims that TikTok broke both federal law and Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act led to the filing of the complaint.
There have been rumors that Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) plans to lay off many employees. Due to weak global economic growth driven by increasing interest rates, rising inflation, and an energy crisis in Europe, IT companies, crypto exchanges, and financial organizations have eliminated positions and halted the hiring process, leading to this latest development.
Featured Image : Megapixl © Piter2121
Author Shariq Khan 
