A lawsuit filed against Google by consumers who claimed the search engine's photo sharing and storage service violated their privacy was dismissed by a US judge who cited a lack of "concrete injuries". The suit, filed in March 2016, alleged Alphabet Inc's Google violated Illinois state law by collecting and storing biometric data from people's photographs using facial recognition software without their permission through its Google Photos service. Plaintiffs had sought more than US$5mil (RM20.7mil) collectively for the "hundreds of thousands" of state residents affected, according to court documents. Plaintiffs had asked the court for US$5,000 (RM20,700) for each intentional violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, or US$1,000 (RM4,150) for every negligent violation, court documents said. Google had argued in court documents that the plaintiffs were not entitled to money or injunctive relief because they had suffered no harm.

Source: The Star December 30, 2018 23:03 UTC