Instead of prolonging litigation involving its use of facial recognition technologies to automatically tag photos, Facebook has now chosen to settle the long-running dispute. As part of the settlement, the social media giant has reportedly agreed to pay $550 million to a group of Facebook users in Illinois.
The case against Facebook, which was originally filed in 2015, involved the company's alleged unsolicited use of facial recognition technology. The group that launched the suit against the social media firm argued that the use of the tool was a violation of the state's existing privacy laws.
The settlement of the case, which was announced by Facebook during its quarterly earnings report, comes as the company faces intense scrutiny by global regulators.
While the case was filed in 2015, it only got the go-ahead by a federal judge in 2018. The ruling allowed the case to proceed as a class action suit despite Facebook's repeated attempts to have it dismissed. In January this year, the Supreme Court declined a review of Facebook's latest appeal.
Facebook mentioned in a sated that the decision was made in the best interest of its online community and its shareholders. By paying the amount, the company hopes that it can move past the issue and move forward with continuing its commitment to its users.
The social media giant began using facial recognition technology on its platform in 2010, primarily for users in the United States. The tool automatically tagged people in photos, suggesting users to tag people that are automatically linked to existing profiles.
The rollout of the tool immediately sparked criticism as it apparently did not ask users for explicit permission. Facebook argued that users do have the option to switch it off, but users rebutted that the argument was moot since the company did not ask first if users wanted it activated when it was rolled out.
In 2017, Facebook made some changes to its interface with the aim of making it easier for people to switch the facial recognition feature on or off. Last year, Facebook finally decided to have the tool ask a user's permission first before it was activated.
The use of facial recognition technology outside of social media has become a controversial issue globally. Several cities across the US have already banned the use of technology, even in police body cameras. Earlier in the year, the European Union announced that it is currently considering imposing new regulations in the use of facial recognition tools and software in an effort to prevent it from being abused.