DeKalb Times

The parent company of Snapchat will pay a $35 million settlement to Illinoisans in a lawsuit that said the app’s filters and lenses collected user’s biometric data that violated Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act.

“Illinois’ BIPA is considered one of the nation’s strictest biometric privacy laws and has resulted in several class-action lawsuits against some of the tech industry giants, including Google and Facebook,” Senator Dave Syverson (R-Rockford) said.

Norton noted biometrics is information about human features like in fingerprints and facial recognition technology.

Snapchat agreed to a $35 million settlement in an Illinois case that covers individuals who may have used filters on the social media platform since November 2015. The settlement is awaiting approval by a District Court, according to a report by ABC7.

A spokesperson for Snap told TechCrunch the company denies the allegations.

“For example, Lenses can be used to identify an eye or a nose as being part of a face, but cannot identify an eye or a nose as belonging to any specific person,” an email from the company sent to TechCrunch said. “Moreover, even the limited data that is used to power Lenses is never sent to Snap’s servers – the data never leaves the user’s mobile device.”

BIPA allows Illinois residents to sue when companies sell, trade or transfer their biometric information collected online.

The privacy legislation made headlines in 2019 after the Illinois Supreme Court ruled against Six Flags for nonconsensually collecting an attendee’s fingerprint.

“When a private entity fails to comply with one of section 15’s requirements, that violation constitutes an invasion, impairment, or denial of the statutory rights of any person or customer whose biometric identifier or biometric information is subject to the breach,” the justices wrote in the ruling, BioMetric Update reported.

The case in question with Snapchat is Boone, et al. v. Snap Inc. Case No. 2022LA000708.

Individuals who think they may qualify for a payment in this settlement have until Nov. 5, 2022, to submit a claim. To learn more, visit the Snapchat Privacy Settlement’s webpage.