Apple could lose $32.5 billion because of illegally collecting user faces
(Dan Tri) - Apple is being accused of collecting users' biometric data without regulatory consent. If the company loses the lawsuit, it may have to pay up to 32.5 billion USD in compensation.
A group of 10 users has filed a lawsuit against Apple in Illinois state court (USA) since 2020, accusing the company of violating the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
The People feature on the Photos app can detect faces in photos to automatically group by person (Photo: iGeek).
According to the lawsuit, Apple collected facial data and biometric information to serve the People feature in the Photos app on iPhone.
Launched in 2016 on iOS, the People feature uses machine learning technology running directly on the device to recognize faces in photos and automatically arrange them into groups. Thanks to that, users can search for photos of a specific person faster.
Apple said the entire recognition process is processed on the device, without uploading images or facial data to the company's servers. However, the plaintiffs argue that the collection and processing of this data still violates privacy rights under Illinois state regulations.
Under BIPA, businesses must notify and obtain written consent from users before collecting or processing biometric data.
Apple repeatedly asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit. However, this past June, a district judge denied the request and allowed the class action lawsuit to continue.
The company then continued to appeal, but recently another judge also rejected the application, meaning the proceedings will continue.
According to The Times, the number of plaintiffs has increased from 10 people to about 6.5 million users in Illinois. Each asked for $5,000 in compensation. If the court accepts the entire request, Apple may have to pay about $32.5 billion.
Before Apple, in 2022, Meta accepted to settle a lawsuit related to Facebook's facial recognition feature for $650 million in compensation after being accused of violating BIPA.