Apple Photos lawsuit over facial recognition data can move forward
A federal judge cleared a $32.5 billion Illinois lawsuit against Apple over its Photos app’s facial recognition feature, allowing a class action.Summary
Apple is facing a $32.5 billion lawsuit in Illinois alleging that its Photos app’s People album creates and stores biometric faceprints of anyone who appears in users’ photos, including non‑iPhone owners. Plaintiffs argue that the app collects these faceprints without written consent, syncs them across devices via iCloud, and in some cases stores them on Apple’s servers, violating the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act. A federal judge certified the case as a class action, covering roughly 6.5 million Illinois residents, an additional 1 million iCloud users, and up to 2.6 million users of the server‑side feature. Apple contends that the vectors used for sorting cannot reconstruct a face and that it has no access to the data. Despite the defense, the court found the lawsuit meets class‑action requirements and denied Apple’s appeal, allowing the case to proceed. If the claims are upheld, potential damages could reach $32.5 billion, comparable to settlements by Facebook and Instagram for similar biometric data practices.
(Source：Cult of Mac)