Facebook to Pay $550 Million to Settle Facial Recognition Suit - The New York Times

It was another black mark on the privacy record of the social network, which also reported its quarterly earnings.

“ Facebook said on Wednesday that it had agreed to pay $550 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over its use of facial recognition technology in Illinois, giving privacy groups a major victory that again raised questions about the social network’s data-mining practices.

The case stemmed from Facebook’s photo-labeling service, Tag Suggestions, which uses face-matching software to suggest the names of people in users’ photos...