Facebook and the Biometric Information Privacy Act Litigation

Abstract

This article will discuss a class action lawsuit that initially was filed in 2015 against – and ultimately was settled by – the social media giant Facebook, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as Facebook), alleging that Facebook had collected and stored Illinois users’ biometric data without prior notice or consent, with the action basing the plaintiffs’ claims on statutory information found within the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) (Gilardi, 2025; IGA, n.d.). “Biometrics” is defined as “the automated recognition of individuals based on their biological and behavioral characteristics from which distinguishing, repeatable biometric features can be extracted for the purpose of biometric recognition” (DHS, 2025). Fingerprints, iris patterns, or facial features can be used for automated recognition, and Facebook’s automated facial recognition templates that were created using these features are considered to be biometric data under BIPA (Guariglia, 2021).