Facebook, paying $397 paycheck to Illinois residents! 

Facebook agreed to pay $650 million to end the litigation,

The residents of Illinois are already getting the part of benefit, the total of  $397 paycheck, and the money is headed to Illinois residents,  because of the state’s  ‘Biometric Information Privacy Act’ a law passed in 2008,  allowing consumers to sue companies for privacy violations involving; fingerprints, retina scans, facial geometry and similar personal data.

*EFF tweet on the legal procedure pay vs facebook

If you are a Facebook user in Illinois, you might be eligible for $200 to $400 of damages to compensate you for Facebook's violation of your biometric privacy. Check out: https://t.co/lC21FLa5IP

— EFF (@EFF) October 8, 2020

The money or the paycheck are directly deposited from a settlement fund,

set up last year after Facebook agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that the social media company had violated the rights of Illinois residents by collecting and storing digital scans of their faces, without permission.

The state has generally been regarded as among the most aggressive places in the world in terms of regulations on tech.

For some people in Illinois, it’s the clearest example they’ve seen of a privacy law working.

The total sum is set to be split among Illinois Facebook users who filed claims by a certain deadline, deducting the $97.5 million in attorneys’ fees.

• Over 1.6 million people signed on for the settlement by December 2020, and the checks have been circulating ever since.

It’s the largest settlement ever under the Illinois law, and the size of Facebook’s payment has other states, eyeing similar laws for their residents.

Many ‘netizens’ found time to  joke online, claiming that all the check-payment could be a prank or even a spam by facebook

*Resident from Illinois, Weimar S.Baron tweet on facebook payment

I just got paid 397 dollars by Facebook lol… thought it was a scam at first but I logged into paypal and the money is there. pic.twitter.com/YzWjeq0ghS

— 🤠Weimar Silver Baron🤠 (@BankerWeimar) May 17, 2022

The ACLU used the Illinois law to force a settlement last week,

with surveillance company Clearview AI, collected faceprints from online profiles and sold them to customers including police departments.

@thejournalbiz

source: CNBC/Barron’s

Image: Facebook/Meta Inc