Illinois residents who have appeared in a photograph on the Google Photos app from May 1, 2015, and April 25, 2022 could be eligible to receive a settlement as the company will pay $100 million to settle a lawsuit over its facial-recognition photo tool.
The first lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in March 2016 and joined by two others in state courts in 2019. The remaining two were filed later. The lawsuit claimed that the service's face grouping tool, which sorts faces in the Google Photos app by similarity, violated their rights under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
The settlement of $100 million was filed by Google in Cook County Circuit Court on April 14, and Judge Anna M. Loftus issued an order granting preliminary approval of the agreement. Eligible residents can submit a claim now through Sept. 24. Those looking to submit a claim can do so here.
A statement published in the Google settlement website said:
A Settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit against Google LLC. Class Members who file valid claims will be eligible to receive a pro rata portion of the $100,000,000 Settlement Fund after deduction of Court approved fees, costs, and expenses. The actual cash amount that an individual will receive will depend on the number of valid claims and deductions for Court-approved notice and settlement administration expenses, attorneys’ fees, litigation costs and expenses, and service payments to the Class Representatives.
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