Back in April of 2020, Baer Law LLC initiated the FIRST Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) class action lawsuit in the country against the TikTok app, alleging that TikTok was scanning users’ faces and collecting facial data without consent. On February 25, 2021, the Plaintiffs’ leadership group in In Re TikTok Privacy Litigation, moved for preliminary approval of a $92 million proposed class action settlement on behalf of users of the TikTok app. If approved by the court, they will settle the allegations in the lawsuit that TikTok violated federal and state consumer privacy laws. The settlement also provides for injunctive relief, including a requirement that TikTok initiate a new privacy compliance training program.

“First, it provides compensation for TikTok users, but equally as important, it ensures TikTok will respect its users' privacy going forward…Social media seems so innocuous, but troubling data collection, storage, and disclosure can happen behind the scenes." Lawyer for TikTok Users

LAW360: TikTok Accused Of Violating Illinois' Biometric Privacy Law - Law360

Reprinted with permission: https://www.law360.com/articles/1270175/print?section=california

3/6/2021

By Celeste Bott

Law360 (May 4, 2020, 8:43 PM EDT) -- Guardians of Illinois children who use the popular short[1]form video app TikTok have accused the social media platform of violating Illinois' landmark biometric privacy law by scanning users' faces and collecting facial data without consent in a proposed class action filed in California federal court.

Cherise Slate and Brenda Washington, on behalf of minors in their care, say the app has features that include scanning a user's facial geometry to determine his or her age and uses facial scans to allow users to superimpose animated facial filters onto the faces of video subjects. But it doesn't inform users that their facial data is being collected or stored, and doesn't disclose "what they do with that data, who has access to that data, and whether, where, and for how long that data is stored," according to their complaint filed Thursday.

"The app's playful features belie defendants' reliance on users' private, biometric information," they said. "Defendants' readiness to sacrifice the privacy rights of the TikTok App's users is particularly troubling given their demographic makeup, which consists of many minor users."

The app allows users to create short videos, share those videos and interact with other users. It has become wildly popular, having been downloaded more than 200 million times worldwide since 2014, with 65 million accounts registered in the U.S.

Slate and Washington allege TikTok's facial scans have violated the Biometric Information Privacy Act, an Illinois law requiring employers to get informed consent from workers before collecting, using and storing biometric information, such as fingerprints.

The lawsuit was filed in California, where TikTok is headquartered, but only seeks relief on behalf of a proposed class of Illinois residents who use TikTok's face filters, face stickers or its face tracker lens — in which the app detects a user's face through biometrics and will automatically zoom in, according to the complaint — over images or videos of their faces that they've uploaded to the app.

Neither of the unnamed minors, nor their guardians, ever received notice that face scans would be collected or signed a release authorizing TikTok to collect their biometric information, and they were not told why or for how long the information would be stored or used, according to the complaint.

"Defendants' flagrant disregard for the privacy rights of the app's users comes as no surprise," Slate and Washington said. "In the few short years of the app's existence, defendants have taken an evasive, often cavalier, approach to U.S. privacy laws. Defendants' violation of BIPA is part of this pattern of abuse."

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced in February that TikTok's operators would pay $5.7 million for illegally collecting children's data in the United States' largest-ever penalty for a children's privacy breach.

And in December, TikTok agreed to pay $1.1 million to resolve a lawsuit in Illinois federal court claiming it collected and shared personally identifiable information about children under the age of 13 without parental consent.

Representatives of the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

The proposed class is represented by Megan E. Jones, Seth R. Gassman, Michael D. Hausfeld and James J. Pizzirusso of Hausfeld LLP, Will Thompson, Warren T. Burns, Daniel Charest, Russell Herman, Korey A. Nelson, Amanda K. Klevorn and Patrick Murphree of Burns Charest LLP and Jason M. Baer, Casey C. Dereus and Joshua A. Stein of Baer Law LLC.

Counsel information for TikTok could not be immediately determined on Monday.

The case is P.S. et al. v. TikTok Inc. et al., case number 3:2020cv02992, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

--Additional reporting by Ben Kochman. Editing by Janice Carter Brown.

TIMELINE:

Extracted from: TikTok Hit with Biometric Information Privacy Class Action Over User Facial Scans

 March 4, 2021 – TikTok to Settle 21 Biometric Privacy Cases for $92 Million

TikTok has agreed to pay $92 million to settle multidistrict litigation that alleged the short-form video-sharing giant and parent company ByteDance improperly used facial recognition technology to collect and store app users’ biometric identifiers.

The proposed settlement, which includes a $92 million cash fund and meaningful injunctive relief, would end 21 putative class action cases that claim TikTok ran afoul of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act by collecting the facial geometries of users, many of whom are children and teenagers, without first obtaining written consent to do so. The plaintiffs’ 57-page motion for preliminary approval, found here, describes the deal as “among the nation’s highest privacy-related settlements, even in those matters involving significant statutory damages claims.” 

Covered by the proposed settlement are all persons in the United States, as well as a subclass of individuals in Illinois, who used TikTok prior to the court’s preliminary approval of the deal. The injunctive relief component of the tentative settlement will prohibit TikTok from using its app to collect or store users’ biometric information, collect geolocation or GPS data, collect information on users’ clipboards, transmit or store U.S. user data outside of the country, and pre-upload U.S. user-generated content, among other privacy protection and disclosure measures. TikTok will also be required to train employees and contractors in data privacy compliance.

The plaintiffs’ motion states that the settlement was reached after more than a year of litigation, an “expert-led inside look at TikTok’s source code, two hard-found mediations” and subsequent negotiations. The tentative settlement was reached last September amid former President Trump’s efforts to force ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations, a sale President Joe Biden’s administration has since scrapped.

A TikTok spokesperson told Law360 last week that while the company “disagree[s] with the assertations” and denies any wrongdoing, it would “like to focus [its] efforts on building a safe and joyful experience for the TikTok community” rather than go through “lengthy litigation.” 

March 3, 2021 – Not So Fast: Objectors Block $92 Million TikTok Data Privacy Settlement

During a March 2 hearing on preliminary approval, individuals objected to and have consequently held up the proposed $92 million TikTok biometric data privacy settlement detailed below.

Law360 reports that United States District Judge John Z. Lee declined to preliminarily approve the settlement and moved the hearing to April based on objectors’ qualms about the monetary amount, “embarrassingly low” claims rate and clunky notice plan.

The judge requested a supplemental briefing on how the parties handling the multidistrict litigation arrived at the $92 million figure, how they addressed differences between adult and minor TikTok users and details as to why those covered under the settlement cannot be notified through the short-form video app. Chief among the objectors contentions is the argument that $92 million is not enough to satisfy the claims of approximately 89 million class members nationwide in addition to 1.4 million in Illinois alone, particularly in light of Facebook’s recent $650 million biometric privacy deal.

July 16, 2020 – Biometric Privacy Lawsuit Alleges TikTok “Commercializes and Profits From” Exploitation of Illinois Minors

A proposed class action alleges short-form video app TikTok “knowingly entices” Illinois minors into providing images, videos, biometric data and other confidential and private information without first obtaining written consent from a parent or legal guardian.

More broadly, the 21-page case, filed July 15, claims TikTok and ByteDance commercialize and profit from their “brazen exploitation” of Illinois minors in violation of the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The TikTok app’s proprietary facial recognition technology scans every face that appears in every uploaded video, extracting geometric data on unique points and contours, and then creates and stores a template of each face without informing users of this practice, the complaint says.

According to the suit, TikTok has captured, obtained, stored, and/or used Illinois minors’ facial scans without providing proper notice, informing subjects that their biometric information was being collected and disclosed, or seeking and obtaining written releases allowing for the collection, storage and disclosure of the data. Further, TikTok has failed to make a data use and retention policy, as well as guidelines outlining the permanent destruction of users’ information, available to the public, the complaint claims.

The lawsuit, found here, says TikTok, a platform full of 15-second videos of dancing, lip-syncing and more, currently sits among the top five most downloaded free iPhone/Android apps and boasts roughly 800 million active users, 40 percent of whom the case says are under 18 years old.

June 9, 2020 – TikTok, ByteDance Facing More Biometric Privacy Litigation

TikTok collects, stores and uses without consent the biometric information of those whose faces appear in videos posted to the social media app, a proposed class action claims.

The latest in a wave of lawsuits against TikTok and ByteDance over alleged violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the case claims the companies have failed to obtain informed consent before collecting scans of the facial geometries of those who appear in content posted to the short-form video app. At no point do the defendants inform users that TikTok collects, captures, receives, obtains, stores or otherwise uses their unique, unchangeable biometric information, the complaint, filed by a parent on behalf of their minor child, claims.

Further, the suit says TikTok and ByteDance do not disclose what they do with users’ biometric data once it’s captured, nor share any guidelines for how long the data is kept or when it will be permanently destroyed.

May 20, 2020 – California Class Action Claims TikTok Failed to Obtain Consent Before Collecting User Facial Geometries

A proposed class action filed in California federal court is the latest to allege TikTok and ByteDance have run afoul of Illinois privacy law by collecting app users’ facial geometries without consent.

According to the suit, the teen-centric short-form video app collects a scan of a user’s face each time he or she accesses TikTok’s facial filters, stickers or face-tracker lens. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of a minor TikTok user residing near Chicago, claims the companies have violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act in that they failed to obtain informed, written consent from users before collecting, storing or using their biometric information, and failed to implement and maintain a publicly available retention schedule with regard to the data.

May 11, 2020 – TikTok Hit with Another Biometric Data Privacy Suit in Illinois

TikTok and ByteDance are the defendants in another proposed class action alleging the companies’ collection, storage and disclosure of app users’ facial geometries without consent violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).

 Filed on behalf of two minor TikTok users, the lawsuit alleges TikTok and ByteDance’s actions have robbed the plaintiffs and other users of the power to make decisions about the fate of their unique biometric information. This is particularly troublesome when it comes to TikTok given the short-form video app’s connection to the Chinese government, a concern that’s led some U.S. military branches to ban the use of TikTok on government-issued phones, the complaint says.

“In direct violation of the BIPA, the TikTok app’s proprietary facial recognition technology scans every video uploaded to the app for faces, extracts geometric data relating to the unique points and contours (i.e., biometric identifiers) of each face, and then uses that data to create and store a template of each face – all without ever informing anyone of this practice,” the case claims.

 IN THE NEWS:

TikTok To Pay $92 Million To Settle Class-Action Suit Over 'Theft' Of Personal Data : NPR

ByteDance Agrees to $92 Million Privacy Settlement With U.S. TikTok Teens - WSJ

 THE COMPLAINT FILED CAN BE FOUND BELOW: