Facebook headquarters (Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM)

Facebook Inc. has agreed to pay $550 million to settle claims that a feature on the social media platform runs afoul of an Illinois law regarding how companies collect and store biometric identifiers such as fingerprints and facial recognition data.

Facebook chief financial officer Dave Wehner announced the proposed deal in an earnings call with financial analysts Wednesday. Plaintiffs lawyer Jay Edelson of Edelson PC, who was helping lead the lawsuits brought under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, confirmed the amount and said lawyers hope to present the settlement to the court "in the coming weeks."

"Biometrics is one of the two primary battlegrounds, along with geolocation, that will define our privacy rights for the next generation," Edelson said in a statement. "We are proud of the strong team we had in place that had the resolve to fight this critically important case over the last five years. We hope and expect that other companies will follow Facebook's lead and pay significant attention to the importance of our biometric information."

News of the deal comes after the U.S. Supreme Court declined last month to take up Facebook's appeal in the case. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit last year unanimously affirmed a ruling by U.S. District Judge James Donato of the Northern District of California who certified a class in the case to pursue claims that the facial recognition feature called "Tag Suggestions" violated the Illinois law. The feature, launched in 2011, prompts users with possible matches of friends to identify in uploaded pictures. Labaton Sucharow's Michael Canty, who helped broker the deal alongside attorneys at Edelson and Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, said the all-cash settlement sends a signal to Silicon Valley. "I think going forward it sends a clear message that, while you're going to advance the technology, you need to make sure consumers are fully informed, and in this case, opt in if they want to avail themselves of the technology."

Canty, who was a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York and served in the office's National Security and Cybercrimes Section prior to joining Labaton Sucharow, said the deal was an outstanding outcome for class members. "Facebook has fought us at every stage of the litigation. It was a long, hard-fought battle, and we stayed the course."

Donato, who still must give sign-off to the proposed settlement, set a Feb. 6 hearing in the case shortly after the Supreme Court denied Facebook's bid to take the case up last month.

The plaintiffs in the suit were also represented by Robbins Geller and Labaton Sucharow. Facebook is represented by counsel from Mayer Brown and Cooley in the case.