Recommended Photo Tags Could Cost Facebook

We’ve all had those good nights out round a friend’s place, partying and enjoying the jokes and company before heading home only to find our Facebook feeds saying that someone managed to snap a few photos of the festivities. This happens when you are out and about as well thanks to Facebook’s software detecting your face in a picture and auto-tagging you. While designed to help recommend people who you might want to tag in your pictures, people in North California aren’t too keen on Facebook knowing what they look like.

A judge in the district of Northen California has ruled that a class action lawsuit from Facebook users of Illinois could go on. The lawsuit in question stems from the Illinois’ Biometric Privacy Act, a piece of legislation that says private companies must ask for permission before collecting biometric data, such as your fingerprint or in this case a faceprint.

The case has been on a little trip as it was originally started in a court in Illinois but was switched to California as per Facebook’s request, something that comes from a change in their terms and conditions last year to say that any lawsuits against the company had to be done via California law. Facebook argues that measuring the distance between facial features doesn’t count as a biometric as the BIPA states it covers things such as fingerprints, voice prints, and scans which detail “hand or face geometry”.

How do you feel about companies knowing what to look for in a picture to tag you? Should a company be able to use an image to find other images of you without your explicit consent?