Suit against Google's use of facial recognition on stored photos is tossed by judge

On Saturday, a U.S. District Judge in Chicago tossed a lawsuit against Google that had originally been filed in March 2016. According to Reuters, the suit claimed that Google violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act by using facial recognition software to collect and store biometric data from photographs without permission. Google was allegedly doing the illegal activity through the Google Photos app.

The plaintiffs had asked for a total of $5 million to cover the "hundreds of thousands" of Illinois residents affected. The filing requested that Google pay $5,000 for each intentional violation of the Privacy Act, and $1,000 for each negligent violation. Documents Google filed with the court stated that the plaintiffs suffered no harm and thus were not entitled to monetary damages or injunctive relief. U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang sided with Google, and said that the court did not have "subject matter jurisdiction because plaintiffs have not suffered concrete injuries."

Google's motion for summary judgment was granted by the judge, which in effect dismissed the suit. The Google Photos app is available in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.