A San Francisco federal judge is allowing a case against Facebook’s facial recognition, photo-tagging feature to proceed, USA Today reports. Plaintiffs have argued the feature violates users’ privacy, as the facial recognition technology goes against Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act, which requires companies to obtain explicit consent from users before gathering biometric data. While Facebook argued the feature is covered in its terms of service, and that the suit should be dismissed, U.S. District Judge James Donato disagreed. “Trying to cabin this purpose within a specific in-person data collection technique has no support in the words and structure of the statute, and is antithetical to its broad purpose of protecting privacy in the face of emerging biometric technology," Donato wrote in his ruling.
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