Social media giant Facebook wins preliminary approval for settlement of facial recognition lawsuit

In a major development, Facebook Inc won preliminary approval from a federal court for settlement of a lawsuit that claimed it collected and stored biometric data of users in an illegal manner without their consent.

In July, the social media giant had raised its settlement offer to $650 million in relation to the lawsuit, in which Illinois users accused the California-headquartered company of violating the U.S. state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act.

The revised settlement agreement resolved the court’s concerns, leading to the preliminary approval of the class action settlement, Judge James Donato wrote in an order.

According to the lawsuit, social media platform Facebook allegedly infringed the law through its “Tag Suggestions” setting, which allowed its users to identify their Facebook friends from previously uploaded photos.