Google to pay $100 million to Illinois residents for Photos’ face grouping feature

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The class-action lawsuit over the facial recognition feature in the photo service was settled for $100 million by the company. According to the complaint, the face grouping tool, which identifies your face in photos and videos uploaded to Photos, is in violation of the BIPA.

The BIPA bars companies from collecting and storing any kind of data, including atina or iris scans, fingerprints, voiceprints, or scans of hand or face geometry, without making an individual aware in writing about why it's collecting this kind of data as well. According to the complaint, Google is in violation of this law as it collects and analyzes a person's facial structure in connection with its face grouping feature without providing notice, getting informed written consent or publishing data retention policies.

As a result of the class-action suit, the company agreed to give users a notice about face grouping. If you lived in Illinois between May 1st, 2015, and April 25th, 2022, you have until September 24th, 2022, to submit a claim. Depending on how many people file a claim, you can get between $200 and $400. There will be a final approval hearing on September 28th.

"We are committed to building easy-to-use controls for our users, and we are pleased to resolve this matter relating to specific laws in Illinois." If you want to find old photos and memories of the same person, you can use the similar faces feature in the photo service. It's only visible to you and you can turn it off if you want.

A class-action lawsuit in Illinois ordered Facebook to pay hundreds of millions of dollars. The platform's Tag Suggestions tool, which analyzed users' faces in photos and provided suggestions on who the face might belong to, violated the state's biometrics privacy laws, according to a complaint. The class-action lawsuit in Illinois claims that the service gathers users' voiceprints and facial geometry data without their consent.