IL Facebook Users Could See Up To $400 In Class-Action Suit Payout

ILLINOIS — Illinois Facebook users could see checks between $200 and $400 show up in their mailboxes soon as part of a $650 million class-action suit against the company.

An estimated 1.42 million people will receive checks, which started being mailed out this week, the company said. Facebook is paying the settlement after the suit states that the popular social media platform used and stored users’ biometric data (physical characteristics) without their consent, broking Illinois privacy laws.

According to the Settlement Administrator, "Facebook users in Illinois sued Facebook claiming that its “Tag Suggestions” feature and other features involving facial recognition technology violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.

The suit states that Facebook used Facebook users’ facial characteristics to create face templates that can be used to identify users without their consent. Facebook denies any wrongdoing.

The settlement states that Illinois residents who had a facial template created after June 7, 2011, are eligible to receive part of the settlement.

In order to receive a check, however, Facebook users would have had to file a claim against the company by a certain date, which, according to the settlement website, was in 2020.

According to the settlement website, it will take approximately two weeks for the checks to be mailed and for electronic payments to be processed.