A federal judge in the

United States

granted final approval to a payment of

650 million dollars

by

Facebook

to resolve a privacy conflict between the social media giant and 1.6 million users in the state of

Illinois.

The decision was issued on Friday, according to documents obtained by AFP on Sunday.

A

Chicago

attorney

, Jay Edelson,

sued Facebook in 2015, alleging that the social network illegally collected biometric data to identify faces, in

violation

of a 2008

Illinois privacy law

.

In late January 2020, Facebook agreed to pay $ 550 million after failing to get the lawsuit, filed as a class action in 2018, dismissed. But in July 2020, the judge in the case,

James Donato,

ruled that the amount was insufficient.

During the trial, Facebook was proven to be violating Illinois law by storing biometric data

- digital scans of people's faces,

through its facial tagging feature - without the consent of users.

In 2019, Facebook proposed that the facial recognition feature be only optional.

For Donato, the ruling is "momentous" and represents a "major victory for consumers in the controversial field of digital privacy."

"It is one of the largest settlements ever for a privacy violation," he said, noting that

the plaintiffs will receive at least $ 345 each

in compensation.

Facebook was not immediately available to comment on the decision.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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