Facebook Sued for Violating Privacy Laws With Facial Recognition Feature

Facebook is in legal trouble over usage of personal data of its users for its facial recognition features, media reports said.

Carlo Licata from Illinois claimed that Facebook broke the law by collecting biometric data used for the social network's tag suggestions feature.

Licata, who filed the suit in Illinois' Cook county circuit court recently, said he "never gave permission for Facebook to collect or store biometric data, nor was he notified or given an opportunity to prohibit or prevent it from doing so".

In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said Licata's lawsuit was "without merit" and that the company plans to "defend ourselves vigorously", Chicago Tribune reported.

Facebook introduced tag suggestions in 2010 as a way to make tagging photos easier.

The feature automatically suggests tags for the faces of people you're friends with and improves over time as you tag more photos.

Although Facebook provides a way users can disable the feature, Licata's lawyer said this doesn't go far enough.

"If he changed the privacy setting, that wouldn't change anything because Facebook had taken his data and they're holding on to it," Licata's attorney Jay Edelson was quoted as saying.