Snap agrees to $35M settlement in Illinois biometric data lawsuit

Social media company Snap reached a $35 million settlement in principle earlier this month to resolve an Illinois class-action lawsuit alleging violations of the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) through the collection of “facial biometric identifiers” without users’ consent.

According to the class-action complaint, violations of the BIPA arose with Snapchat’s “Lenses” feature, which allows users to add special effects to photos and works by “scanning the geometry of a person’s face.”

As part of the agreement, Snap must implement an in-application notice to Illinois users about how faces, hands, and/or voices might be used to make features such as Lenses and voice commands work.