A lawsuit filed by a group of citizens against Google for using Facial Recognition software on the content stored on Google Photos platform was dismissed by the US District Judge Edmond Chang in Chicago last month. The reason- due to lack of concrete evidence that the Alphabet’s subsidiary was playing with its user data by showing laxity towards privacy policies.
Highly placed sources of Cybersecurity Insiders say that the lawsuit was filed in March 2016 alleging the internet juggernaut for collecting and storing biometrics data from photographs stored on its platform- all with the use of facial recognition software.
As Illinois law strictly prohibits government and private companies for using people’s images against their permission, the lawsuit was filed in the interest of the public.
The Litigants sought compensation of over $5 million for the hundreds of thousands of residents affected, as per the court documents. Furthermore, the complainants asked the court for $5,000 for each intentional violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, or $1,000 for every negligent violation.
Due to the ongoing holiday season, none of the senior level executives from Google were available to comment on this issue.
However, it’s clear that the populace of America is not going to keep their mouths shut if their trusted technology companies start playing dirty games with their data.
Already a lot has been proved with the Cambridge Analytica data scandal where Facebook had to face the ire of the Senate and the public last year. And is still finding it hard to prevent over 1,700 users/avg delete their Facebook accounts every day.
