The Privacy Class Action Review - 2023 - Report - Page 19
violations for on-line “virtual try-on” claims. If successful in capitalizing on these claims,
expect the numbers of lawsuits alleging violations in these areas to rise in 2023.
While the overwhelming majority of the over 450 lawsuits filed in 2022 alleging privacy
violation claims were claims asserting that users’ fingerprints or facial scans were
improperly used, there were 31 that referenced claims based on these “non-traditional”
BIPA allegations.
Third, these factors have contributed to a wave of high-dollar-value settlements. In
terms of settlement value, the settlement in the litigation captioned In Re Facebook
Biometric Information Privacy Litigation, Case No. 15-CV-03747 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 26,
2021), approved in February 2021, remains at the top, with a whopping $650 million
price tag. In that case, plaintiffs alleged that Facebook collected and stored the
biometric data of users in Illinois through its use of “Tag Suggestions” and other
features involving facial recognition technology, without providing users proper notice
and obtaining consent, in violation of the BIPA. Over the past two years, defendants
have entered into several other eight-figure settlements stemming from privacy class
actions against Google ($100 million), TikTok ($92 million), and others. These eyepopping figures demonstrate the continued potency of BIPA litigation in terms of
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© Duane Morris LLP 2023
Duane Morris Privacy Class Action Review – 2023