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Facebook, Shutterfly Face Lawsuits For Using Facial Recognition To ID Photos (computerworld.com)

Lucas123 writes: A federal judge has denied a motion by Shutterfly to dismiss a civil case against it claiming it violated privacy laws by collecting and scanning face geometries from uploaded images without consent. The plaintiff in the case, Brian Norberg, alleges he was never a member of Shutterfly and that other people uploaded photos that included his image. Facebook faces a similar lawsuit for its photo "tag suggestions" feature, but there has as yet been no judgement in the case. In his Shutterfly case ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Norgle rejected the website's argument that only in-person scans of people's faces are covered under the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act, which states that no private entity may collect, capture, purchase, receive through trade, or otherwise obtain a person's or a customer's biometric identifier or biometric information with out their consent.

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  1. Relevant Illinois law: does not include photos by raymorris · · Score: 5, Informative

    The law under which the suit was filed:
    http://www.ilga.gov/legislatio...

    The law lists what is and what is not a "biometric identifier ":

            "Biometric identifier" means a retina or iris scan,
              fingerprint, voiceprint, or scan of hand or face geometry.
              Biometric identifiers do not include writing samples,
              written signatures, photographs,