• by Wendy Davis , September 18, 2024

Siding against Meta Platforms, a federal judge has refused to dismiss a class-action complaint alleging that the company unlawfully collects biometric data from Illinois residents who use the Messenger and Messenger Kids apps.

The ruling, issued Tuesday by U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Rosenstengel in the Southern District of Illinois, comes in a dispute centered on Meta's alleged use of facial-recognition technology to power Messenger's augmented reality effects -- such as cat whiskers superimposed on users' faces during video calls.

Messenger users Rebecca Hartman and Joseph Turner of Illinois, along with their minor children, alleged in a class-action complaint brought in August 2023 that Meta violated the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act, which requires companies to notify people about biometric data collection -- including scans of facial geometry -- and obtain their written agreement.

“Defendant collected users' face biometric data without obtaining consent,” they alleged in a complaint initially brought in state court and later transferred to federal court.

They alleged that Meta disabled the augmented-reality feature for Illinois residents in May 2022.

Meta urged Rosenstengel to throw out the case at an early stage for several reasons. Among other arguments, Meta said the biometric data it allegedly collected couldn't be used to identify specific people.

“This is not the sort of case that Illinois lawmakers envisioned when they passed the Biometric Information Privacy Act,” the company argued in papers filed last November.

“At issue here are fun and silly features on two different services offered by Meta Platforms, Inc. -- Facebook Messenger and Messenger Kids -- that allow users to make it look like they are wearing digital bunny ears or a flower crown. Plaintiffs do not allege that the information used to make these features work could be used to identify them or that such information has fallen into anyone’s hands but their own.”

Rosenstengel rejected Meta's argument for now, essentially holding that the allegations in the complaint, if proven true, could show that the biometric data at issue could identify Facebook users.

“Plaintiffs Rebecca Hartman and Joseph Turner, at a minimum, allege that they created usernames and passwords for themselves to set up their Facebook accounts,” she wrote. “Although more information would have been helpful, plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged that they supplied identifying information that Meta could match to their face geometry scans to identify them.”