Cybersecurity
Facebook Photo-Scanning Suit Is a Multibillion-Dollar Threat
- Class-action ruling is major win for users under Illinois law
- Judge notes company’s worry about exposure to large damages
Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
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Facebook Inc. may have to pay a real price for claims it invaded users’ privacy: billions of dollars.
A federal judge ruled Monday that millions of the social network’s users can proceed as a group with claims that its photo-scanning technology violated an Illinois law by gathering and storing biometric data without their consent. Damages could be steep -- a fact that wasn’t lost on the judge, who was unsympathetic to Facebook’s arguments for limiting its legal exposure.