In the new lawsuit, filed Monday in state court in Redwood City, California, the company is accused of collecting, storing and profiting from the biometric data of more than 100 million Instagram users, without their knowledge or consent.
The practice violates an Illinois privacy law that bars the unauthorized collection of biometric data, according to the lawsuit. Under the law a company can be forced to pay US$1,000 per violation -- or US$5,000 if it’s found to have acted recklessly or intentionally.
Only at the beginning of this year did Facebook start informing Instagram users that it was collecting the biometric data, according to the suit.
Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, made after regular business hours.
The suit is Whalen v. Facebook, 20-civ-03346, Superior Court of California (Redwood City).
