Google wins dismissal of facial recognition lawsuit over biometric privacy act

Google has been facing a lawsuit since 2016 for alleging scanning and saving the biometric data of a woman who was unwittingly captured in 11 photos taken by a Google Photos user on Android. The lawsuit over facial recognition privacy has just been dismissed by a judge in Chicago, who found that the plaintiff didn’t suffer “concrete injuries,” as first reported by Bloomberg.

In the original suit, the woman sued Google for allegedly uploading her data to Google Photos and scanning it to create a template of her face without her permission. The Google lawsuit is one of three cases aimed at prominent tech companies that have allegedly violated the United States’ toughest biometric privacy law and it’s the first one to get dismissed.

Lawsuits against Snapchat and Facebook are still pending

The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act has long been a huge obstacle for tech companies working on facial recognition initiatives. The law requires companies to obtain people’s explicit permission in order to make biometric scans of their bodies. Illinois citizens who feel their rights have been violated can file lawsuits under the act. Companies including Google, Snapchat, and Facebook all faced lawsuits initiated in 2015 and 2016 for allegedly violating the Illinois law.

The other lawsuits are still pending. In April, a federal judge ruled that Facebook must face a class action lawsuit from Illinois users over allegations that it used facial recognition technology photos without explicit user consent. The feature “Tag Suggestions” that offers users suggested people based on their faces in photos allegedly violates the Illinois law.