Facebook Stalls In Facial Recognition Privacy Lawsuit

Facial recognitionA class action lawsuit filed against Facebook for its use of facial recognition data continues to move forward in court. However, Facebook is stalling the case with some truly ridiculous objections to the plaintiffs’ argument.

The case stems from a 2008 Illinois law that makes it illegal for any company to collect “biometric data,” such as scans of hands or faces, without disclosing the practice. The class action suit, filed in 2015, alleges that Facebook knowingly disregards the law for Illinois users. What’s more, Facebook began a lobbying effort against the law when it became clear that the suit would not be dismissed, and the site has refused to provide information about its lobbying to attorneys representing the Illinois users.

Facebook has proven to be stubborn every step of the way in the case, objecting to the definitions of the following terms: biometric identifiers, faceprint, face template, face recognition, face finding, stores, name and location, user, created, uploaded, relevant time period, Facebook, defendant, you and your.

The site’s obstinacy along with its lobbying efforts, illustrate that Facebook is clearly spooked it could lose this case. An early February deadline to give up some info is fast approaching, so Facebook may not be able to stall much longer.