TikTok biometric privateness settlement held up by objections $92 million not even shut

TikTok’s $ 92 million settlement on a lawsuit for violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act and federal privacy laws is under review and, like Facebook’s a year ago, could be returned for reloading, Law360 reports.

The proposed settlement would close more than 20 proposed class actions for breaches of BIPA’s informed consent rules, many of which involve minors. The app allegedly uses facial recognition technology to collect and store biometric data from users without the required written permission.

Illinois federal judge John Z. Lee declined to give preliminary approval for the multiple district settlement after objections from an Edelson PC customer and another plaintiff. In the complainant’s submission, the settlement amount was described as “embarrassingly low”. The judge ordered an additional briefing to find out how the amount was determined, how differences between adult class members and children were resolved, and why the conditions state that notifying users of the app cannot be done through the app itself.

Plaintiff’s attorneys argued that the Facebook BIPA lawsuit had an unusually high loss rate of 22 percent and that an estimated 1 to 2 percent of national users and more in Illinois are likely to be seeking recovery. The agreement was reached through months of negotiations and two mediation meetings and, according to the co-lead counsel, is largely supported by the plaintiffs. Another attorney told the court that notifications to minors via the app were fraught with legal obstacles and that the billing amount would have to change in order to compensate TikTok.

In the case of Facebook, the notification was made via the social media platform.

An Edelson partner said a similar percentage of claims in this case would be approximately $ 20 for Illinois residents and $ 3 for other plaintiffs.

The proposed comparison also includes restrictions on the collection, transmission, and storage of biometric and other data by TikTok, as well as mandatory compliance training.

Article topics

biometric data | Biometrics | BIPA | Data acquisition | Data protection | Face recognition | Lawsuits | Legislation | privacy

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