Data Privacy Class Action Against Facebook Survives Motion To Dismiss

Earlier this week, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Hon. James Donato) held in Patel v. Facebook Inc., that plaintiffs had standing to pursue a putative data privacy class action against Facebook alleging that the company had “collected users’ biometric data secretly and without consent.”

The decision is the latest to weigh in on the injury allegations necessary for standing purposes under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”), which regulates the collection and storage of biometric information, and provides a private right of action to a “person aggrieved by a violation.”  In finding that standing was met, the Facebook decision arguably applied a lower injury threshold than other courts have interpreted to be the outer boundaries for pleading an Article III injury under BIPA.

 Click here, to continue reading on the Cleary Cybersecurity and Privacy Watch blog.