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Check your email -- or your bank account -- you may be one of more than 680,000 Illinois residents set to receive a payment as part of a multi-million dollar class-action settlement involving Google.
According to court documents, 687,484 Illinois residents on July 7 began receiving payments as part of a class-action lawsuit that alleged Google violated the state's Biometric Privacy Act. The lawsuit, filed earlier this year in Cook County Circuit Court, claims that Google violated Illinois law by collecting and storing residents' biometric data through Google Photos without proper notice and consent.
Google did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement agreement and has denied all claims made in the lawsuit.
How and when will I receive my settlement?
According to court documents, all Illinois residents who submitted valid claims will receive somewhere between $95-$96 each. Payments will either be in the form of a mailed check, the settlement administrator says, or distributed electronically.
Those who are owed settlement payments electronically are set to receive it in one of five ways, the settlement administrator says: through either Zelle, PayPal, Venmo, digital MasterCard or direct deposit. According to the suit, class action members had the option of selecting one of these distribution methods while filing a claim.
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Claimants who have received payments via PayPal or Venmo report to NBC Chicago that they were notified of their settlements directly through those payment services.
According to the settlement administrator, those who opted to received their payment via a digital MasterCard will receive an email from googlebipasettlement@hawkmarketplace.com, with the subject “Your Rivera, et al. v. Google LLC Settlement Prepaid Mastercard Is Ready."
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Users then must click on a link in the email to activate the card, the administrator says.
Can I still file a claim?
Residents had until late September of 2022 to file a claim if they appeared in a photograph on Google Photos anywhere between May 1, 2015 and April 25, 2022 while an Illinois resident. That fall, the Chicago Tribune reported that the judge indicated around 420,000 claims were filed in the case, which would mean each person could get around $150. Prior to that, attorneys estimated each person would be paid somewhere between $200 and $400.
In the many months since, the number of claims submitted soared to 687,484, reducing the amount paid to each person.
The lawsuit, which mirrors one previously settled with Facebook that resulted in many residents receiving checks worth nearly $400, claimed the company violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act by "collecting and storing biometric data of individuals who, while residing in Illinois, appeared in a photograph in the photograph sharing and storage service known as Google Photos, without proper notice and consent."
If a company is found to have violated Illinois law, citizens can collect civil penalties up to $5,000 per violation compounded by the number of people affected and days involved. Since BIPA is an Illinois law, it only applies to state residents.
