Facebook Sued Over Illegally Collecting Biometric Data Of 100 Million Instagram Users

Facebook is accused of illegally harvesting the biometric data of 100 million Instagram users without their knowledge or consent.

Just a few weeks ago, social media giant Facebook offered to pay $650 million to settle a lawsuit filed over its use of facial recognition technology for a photo-tagging feature and collecting the biometric data of users.

Now the company is facing a similar lawsuit that was filed last Monday in California, claiming that it illegally collected, stored and profited from the biometric data of +100 million IG users without their knowledge or consent.

According to Bloomberg, Stephanie Otway who is a Facebook spokesperson said “This suit is baseless,” and “Instagram doesn’t use face recognition technology.” he added. 

And Instagram’s data policy on face recognition states ‘’If we introduce face-recognition technology to your Instagram experience, we will let you know first, and you will have control over whether we use this technology for you.’’

According to the lawsuit, Only at the beginning of this year did Facebook start informing Instagram users that it was collecting the biometric data, according to the suit.

Under the law, a company can be forced to pay $1,000 per violation — or $5,000 if it’s found to have acted recklessly or intentionally, which means the total fine could reach up to $500 billion.