Supreme Court Won’t Hear Facebook Privacy Class Action

The Supreme Court has decided not to hear Facebook’s appeal in a class action lawsuit filed by Facebook users who claim that the social media giant violated Illinois privacy laws by using facial recognition software.

Facebook is attempting to appeal a decision by the Ninth Circuit that determined that Facebook users could sue the company for violating their privacy using facial recognition technology on their photos.

According to Facebook, the users did not suffer actual harm from the use of the technology. However, the three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit determined that users were indeed harmed by Facebook, because users effectively lost control of their biometric data.

This decision led Facebook to file a petition for review of the BIPA class action lawsuit by the Supreme Court.

Facebook did not succeed in this effort and their request was denied along with 67 others on the same day. Because of this denial, the Facebook biometric privacy class action lawsuit will return to a district court in San Fransisco led by U.S. District Judge James Donato. Judge Donato was the same judge who previously required Facebook to notify its users about the biometric privacy class action lawsuit via a range of channels.

News sources call Facebook’s bid for review by the Supreme Court a last ditch effort to avoid what could be a very costly lawsuit for the company as it already previously attempted to dodge the claims.

Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, one of the most expansive privacy laws in the country, allows plaintiffs to seek up to $1,000 for each negligent violation of the law and $5,000 for each knowing violation of the law.

Given that Facebook has millions of users, and there could be around 7 million class members. Experts estimate that if Facebook is found liable for privacy violations they could have to pay more than $35 billion in damages.

The Hill explains that this is not the first time that a tech company has argued that privacy violations and data breaches do not cause the public actual harm, and therefore the claims around them should dismissed. Reportedly, this is a common argument made by businesses and technology companies.

In arguing that the Supreme Court should hear the privacy class action lawsuit, Facebook had claimed that the Ninth Circuit’s decision was inconsistent with other decisions.

According to the social media giant, the Ninth Circuit should have determined that consumers could not make claims of injury based on misuse that could happen in the future, but had not happened yet. Facebook says the possibility of injury does not indicate “an imminent risk of injury,” as the workers had claimed.

Have you had your biometric information collected or stored? Share your experiences in the comments below.

The plaintiffs and proposed Class Members are represented by J. Aaron Lawson, Jay Edelson, Benjamin Richman, Alexander G. Tievsky, Rafey S. Balabanian and Lily Hough of Edelson PC; Susan K. Alexander, Shawn A. Williams, Paul J. Geller, Stuart A. Davidson, Lucas Olts, Christopher C. Gold, John H. George, Patrick J. Coughlin, Ellen Gusikoff Stewart and Randi D. Bandman of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP; and Lawrence Sucharow, Michael P. Canty, Corban S. Rhodes and Ross Kamhi of Labaton Sucharow LLP.

The Facebook Biometric Privacy Appeal is Facebook Inc. v. Patel, et al., Case No. 19-706, in U.S. Supreme Court. The Facebook Biometric Class Action Lawsuit is Patel, et al. v. Facebook Inc., Case No. 1:15-cv-04265, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

UPDATE: On Jan. 30, 2020, Facebook reached a $550 million settlement with consumers who claim that the social media giant violated Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act by using facial recognition on users’ photos without their consent.

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