Snap reaches $35 million settlement in Illinois privacy lawsuit over lenses

Another social media company is paying up due to Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act. Snap Inc. (the parent company of Snapchat) has reached a $35 million settlement in an Illinois class action lawsuit over its use of facial recognition technology. The lawsuit alleges that Snapchat violated the BIPA law by collecting and storing the biometric data of users who used its lenses and filters -- without their consent. Illinois residents who resided in the state after November 17th, 2015 and used Snapchat's popular AR features may be eligible for a cut of the settlement. Snap Inc. is only the latest company to get penalized under BIPA -- which requires companies to ask for consent before it can collect biometric data from users.