Facebook has announced it settled a lawsuit filed in 2015 in over its facial recognition practices and will pay $550 million as a result.
The suit alleged Facebook violated Illinois privacy regulations with a feature that suggested to users other people to tag in their photos. Facebook replaced the tag suggestion tool with a broader facial recognition setting last year.
That means Illinois residents who used the platform during that time could get money from Facebook as part of the settlement.
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How much money you could get and when remains unclear. According to local outlets, a single Facebook user might get up to a couple hundred dollars as part of the settlement.
Facebook reported a strong fourth quarter, making more money on advertising and adding more users despite challenges around regulation, privacy and efforts to fight election interference.
Its profit and revenue both handily surpassed Wall Street's expectations.
Facebook is under growing regulatory scrutiny around the world. In the U.S., it faces several government investigations for alleged anti-competitive behavior. Last August, it was fined $5 billion by the Federal Trade Commission for privacy violations, the largest FTC fine ever for a tech company.
Amid ongoing criticism about how Facebook handles the private data of its users, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the company was shifting course for a more "privacy-focused" future. This includes emphasizing small-group and private communication, though details are still scant.
It's not clear if this privacy focus will mean anything for how ads on Facebook are targeted, which has always been among the chief concerns for privacy advocates.
