Facebook Inc won preliminary approval late on Wednesday from a federal court for settlement of a lawsuit that claimed it illegally collected and stored biometric data of millions of users without their consent.
The social media company had in July raised its settlement offer by $100 million to $650 million in relation to the lawsuit, in which Illinois users accused it of violating the US state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act.
“Preliminary approval of the amended stipulation of class action settlement, Dkt. No. 468, is granted, and a final approval hearing is set for January 7, 2021,” the judge said in the eight-page order.
The company has recently faced criticism from lawmakers and regulators over its privacy practices. Last year, it agreed to pay a record $5 billion fine to settle a Federal Trade Commission data privacy probe.
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