Facebook Inc. is already under heavy scrutiny for illegally harvesting biometric data from its users, and now it’s Instagram’s time to face the music. Last month, Zuckerberg’s social media behemoth offered to kill a lawsuit by offering a $650 million settlement, as Facebook was accused of illegally collecting biometric data from its users via a photo tagging tool easily available in the Facebook app.
As per a new lawsuit filled in state court in Redwood City, California on Monday, Instagram (also Facebook owned) collects, stores and profits from selling the biometric data of its more than 100 million users, without the users’ knowledge or consent.
According to the new lawsuit, unauthorized collection of biometric data breaks Illinois privacy laws, and Facebook may be forced to pay between $1000 and $5000 per violation, provided the company is found to have acted intentionally and/or recklessly.
The suit can be found if you “search-engine” Whalen v. Facebook, 20-civ-03346, Superior Court of California (Redwood City). Facebook made no comment so far in regard to the new lawsuit, but it’s worth mentioning that Instagram users were informed about the “biometric data collection” issue only at the beginning of 2020.