The federal judge overseeing a privacy class action targeting Facebook’s photo identification feature wrestled at a hearing Thursday morning with whether plaintiffs have standing to sue in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Spokeo decision.
U.S. District Judge James Donato of the Northern District of California said there was “nothing terribly novel about” the Supreme Court’s 2016 ruling in Spokeo v. Robins, which Facebook’s lawyers at Mayer Brown say dooms the suit. But the judge also pressed plaintiffs counsel at Edelson PC about what, if any, harm is being alleged under an Illinois statute governing the collection of biometric data.Donato is overseeing three separate suits initially filed in state and federal courts in Illinois and California by lawyers at Edelson, Labaton Sucharow, and Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd. The firms all sued Facebook on behalf of the site’s Illinois users claiming that the company’s use of facial recognition technology to suggest friends for users to tag in photos runs afoul of a 2008 Illinois law regulating the collection and retention of data about physical traits used to identify individuals.
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