Illinois residents involved in a $68.5 million class-action lawsuit against Instagram have begun to receive settlement payments. In violation of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the complaint claimed that several Instagram features gathered biometric data illegally.
Companies must follow certain rules and laws under the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) before they can gather and store users’ biometric data. Companies that violate this law face penalties.
Anyone who lived in Illinois and used the Instagram app between August 10, 2015, and August 16, 2023, was the target of the class action complaint. The deadline for submitting a claim was the 27th of September in the year 2023. Individuals who qualified for the settlement began receiving their payments from Instagram on Friday, June 7. Each person got $32.56.
Instagram is making a significant financial settlement for the illegal use of Biometric Data. In the past, Facebook and other social media companies have also made similar agreements.
A new BIPA rule states that gathering people’s personal data without their consent can only result in a $1,000 fine. This update replaces the old rule, in which companies could face larger fines for each violation. The intention of this change is to help businesses lower the high costs and fines of legal compliance. Critics, on the other hand, say that it doesn’t protect companies from past violations, leaving them open to ongoing legal challenges.
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