Facebook to face class action

[Retronym]

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected Facebook Inc’s (FB.O) effort to undo a class action lawsuit claiming that it illegally collected and stored biometric data for millions of users without their consent.

The 3-0 decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco over Facebook’s facial recognition technology exposes the company to billions of dollars in potential damages to the Illinois users who brought the case.





Gooooooooood.

 

[Darunion]

They will pay their fee, everyone will get $25, and the users will still keep using facebook.

 

[Hagrid]

They will pay their fee, everyone will get $25, and the users will still keep using facebook.

The lawyers will buy some more summer/winter homes and maybe some new sports cars.

 

[DrLobotomy]

You forgot about Facebook will now double down and wall them selves up so it doesn't happen again which in turn will create a newer, upgraded form of evil.

 

[GoodBoy]

Biometric? What/How did they collect this?

 

[Westwood]

Biometric? What/How did they collect this?

I can't speak for Facebook, but everyone in my entire office was handed $100 to turn in their biometrics. Everyone gave me crap for not participating. I asked the people that submitted the info if they knew where that information goes. Who cares! Its $100!

 

[KarsusTG]

Biometric? What/How did they collect this?

It's incredibly easy to do this. Between the apps they own like whatsapp and the pictures /etc people post and SSO data under their control they could have a pretty complete profile easily.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Biometric? What/How did they collect this?

Maybe some facial recognition based on pictures users uploaded & tagged as themselves (or others).

Either way what point is a class action, make some lawyers rich(er), make Facebook's stock drop half a percent, is what they did illegal? Why don't we have laws that effectively throw companies in "prison" when they break the law "Sorry facebook you're not allowed to operate on the internet for 5 years, but you can knock that down to 3 with good behavior"

 

[termite]

Biometric? What/How did they collect this?

From all those pictures everyone sticks into Facebook. You know those name tags for photos, and how it will recognize the same person in future photos? Yeah, that biometric data.

 

[GoodBoy]

Ahh, so facial recognition.. First thought hearing BioMetric and I was thinking fingerprint scans (maybe out of cellphones?), Iris scans. But yeah, I can see how a face fits into that.

But if all they did was collect it, and use it to auto-tag people in photos, I'm guessing the majority of users are not going to care. I mean, how can it be misused? Criminal robs a convenience store, police use facebook photo recognition to identify him? They already got our picture from Drivers Licenses/Passports...

 

[odditory]

The lawyers will buy some more summer/winter homes and maybe some new sports cars.

You forgot: taking their wives back to the dealership and trading them in for a younger, hotter, 2020 model. Nothin like that new car smell!

 

[HAL_404]

sooooo .... it's not just the Illinois users who can bring a law suite, right?

 

[seanreisk]

For fucks sakes, we have FERPA laws that prevent an educational institution from disclosing a student's information, we have HIPPA laws that prevent health care institutions from disclosing a patient's records, we have FRPA and FCRA to prevent the disclosure of our financial information... What IS SO HARD about passing a law that prevents a business from selling / disclosing a client's personal information and collecting data on private activities that originate from a person's home or property?

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Four Privacy Torts were supposed to cover this. Pass a law now before someone comes up with a new way to collect information.


P.S. This is completely different from record keeping. The cellphone database that kept track of who you called and when you called them that the NSA worked so hard to develop after 9/11? That should have been implemented. But implemented at the business level (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint), and protected by warrant.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Gooooooooood.

But in all seriousness, a class action lawsuit is just going to enrich $1400/hr lawyers and not do a damned thing for the people in the class.