Facebook Faces Up To $500 Billion In Damages For Wrongly Collecting Instagram Users’ Biometric Data

Facebook was this week charged with gathering without consent the biometric data of its Instagram app users, according to Bloomberg and other news reports.

The class-action lawsuit filed in a California court accuses Facebook of illegally collecting, saving, and sharing the facial recognition information of its Instagram users. If found responsible Facebook could be fined up to $5,000 for each violation - or potentially as much as $500 billion.

The lawsuit is "baseless," Facebook spokesperson Stephanie Otway said in an emailed statement. Otway added that Instagram doesn't use face-recognition technology as alleged in the legal action. Its data policy allows users to opt out of any face-recognition technology.

The petitioners demand the company pays each member of the class action between $1,000 and $5,000 for every deliberate violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act which restricts the illegal use of biometric data.

The act has been used in the past against social media and other technology companies for clear violations associated with personal data.

Facebook offered to pay a $650 million settlement in a similar action in July. It was accused then of illegally gathering biometric data through its photo-tagging tool.

A report in April said Facebook attempted to acquire spyware built by NSO Group to keep track of iPhone users.

Last month, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet were the subject of charges brought by two Illinois residents for allegedly harvesting their photos to test their facial recognition software.