Facebook Could End Up Paying Billions To Illinois Residents

Yes, you read that correctly.

A lawsuit against Facebook could end up bring billions to Illinois, but not to the state. No, this money would belong to its residents. The lawsuit has been moved to federal court in San Francisco and it alleges violations of the Illinois Biometrics Information Privacy Act. A U.S. District Judge, earlier this week, granted class-action status for the suit.

The Chicago Tribune is reporting, "Facebook has argued that if its collection of biometric information did not harm individuals, they do not have grounds to sue under Illinois’ biometrics law. But Donato wrote in his order that an alleged invasion of privacy was injury enough to allow users to sue."

“(It will) demonstrate hopefully to other states that they can and should be protecting their citizens’ privacy rights,” Scarr said. “For years, public policy has allowed the Googles and Facebooks of the world to be able to collect an incredible amount of information about us. … It has a lot of unintended consequences.”

These titans have become a privatized NSA. But, as this suit continues to pick up steam. They may actually have to pay for their crimes, and I'm not talking about a couple bucks here and there, either.

The Chicago Tribune reports, "The lawsuit asks the court to award damages of $5,000 for each reckless violation of Illinois’ biometrics law and $1,000 for each negligent violation. Damages could amount to billions of dollars, Donato noted in his order."