$92 Million Settlement Ending Class Action Lawsuit Against TikTok’s Consumer Privacy

Accusations under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act include allegations that TikTok has been using technology for facial recognition in order to pin down user ages, gender, and ethnicity. They allegedly used this information to factor into their algorithm of recommending videos to users, and prevent minors from using the app. 

The allegations claim that TikTok never requested consent from users to be using facial recognition technology, and never updated documentation in its data retention policy. The defendants identified the U.S. and Chinese iterations of TikTok and ByteDance Technology, who own the TikTok platform. According to the plaintiffs’ lead lawyers, TikTok, “infiltrates its users’ devices and extracts a broad array of private data including biometric data and content that defendants use to track and profile TikTok users for the purpose of, among other things, ad targeting and profit.” 

The class pool includes around 89 million American TikTok users with an Illinois subclass, with then following the preliminary settlement approval, only 1.4 million of the pool submit claims. Illinois subclass members can receive $163.13, and nationwide class members can get $27.19. The total settlement fund remained  $92 million, notice and settlement administration costs came to $3.27 million, litigation expenses totaled $789,044, and service awards totaled $90,000.  As of right now, TikTok has refrained from collecting and analyzing geolocation and biometric data, as well as storing user data and uploading user made content to its servers prior to the user saving or publishing. 

Data Privacy is a generally undeveloped and complicated law, which has added a level of complexity to the case.