Facebook faces $35 billion class-action lawsuit

A court in the US has denied Facebook’s request to quash $35 billion class-action lawsuit against its alleged misuse of facial recognition data in Illinois.

A three-judge panel of the ninth circuit judges in San Francisco rejected Facebook’s plea and the case will now go to trial unless the Supreme Court intervenes, TechCrunch reported on Friday.

“The suit alleges that Illinois citizens didn’t consent to having their uploaded photos scanned with facial recognition and weren’t informed of how long the data would be saved when the mapping started in 2011,” the report added.

Facebook could face $1,000 to $5,000 in penalties per user for seven million people, which could reach a maximum of $35 billion.