Apple will face a class-action lawsuit alleging it violated Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), in a case that could cost the company more than $30 billion. Here are the details.
Apple on the hook for up to $32.5 billion
In March 2020, a group of roughly 10 Apple users filed a putative class action accusing Apple Photos’ “People” feature of violating Illinois’ BIPA, which gives citizens “the right to control their biometric information by requiring notice before collection and giving them the power to say no by withholding consent.”
BIPA allows for damages of $1,000 for each negligent violation and $5,000 for each intentional or reckless violation.
This is the same law that led to a lawsuit against Meta ending in a $650 million settlement over Facebook’s facial-recognition system, which scanned photos to suggest people for users to tag, as well as a separate $68.5 million settlement over allegations that Instagram collected and stored users’ biometric data without consent.
Back to the case against Apple, since it was filed in 2020, the lawsuit has undergone four amended complaints, years of discovery, and multiple attempts by Apple to have the claims dismissed, before the court ultimately granted class certification in June.
Based on the certification document spotted by The Times (via AppleInsider), the plaintiffs are seeking to represent roughly 6.5 million from three proposed classes:
- Local Device Class: Every Illinois citizen whose Apple Device put a photograph of that citizen into a People album at any time between September 13, 2016, and the present.
- iCloud Subclass: Every Illinois citizen who had an Apple Device with a People album tagged with that citizen’s name or other identifier, and had an iCloud account enabled for photo storage, at any time between September 13, 2016, and the present.
- iCloud Faceprint Subclass: Every Illinois citizen who had an Apple Device running iOS 17.6, MacOS Sonoma 14.6 or iPadOS 17.6 or later and: (1) had iCloud photo library enabled with at least 10 gigabytes of storage, and (2) their Apple Device put a photograph of that citizen into a People album, and (3) who had 5,000 or more assets (i.e., photos and videos) in their iCloud photo library, at any time between March 25, 2025 and the present (inclusive).
If found liable, Apple could be looking at a $32.5 billion damages bill.
With the class action now certified, the case can move forward. Apple had requested an immediate appeal of the certification order, but that request has been denied.
This means the lawsuit will return to the district court for further proceedings, where the plaintiffs will still need to prove that Apple violated Illinois’ BIPA before any damages can be awarded.
To read The Times‘ full report, follow this link.
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