Facebook rally resumes as the social network movers closer to settle Illinois facial recognition suit

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) stock started Thursday higher as it moved closer to a US$650mln settlement to a lawsuit related to facial recognition and biometric user data. The social network late on Wednesday received preliminary approval from a federal court for the settlement. It comes after the settlement offer for the suit by Illinois users - which claimed Facebook illegally collected and stored biometric data of millions of users without their consent - was increased by US$100mln to US$650mln. The claim was that Facebook’s ‘tag suggestions’ feature violated the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act. The feature allowed Facebook users to see the names of Facebook friends in photos, so long as they had appeared in the user’s previously uploaded photos. In New York, Facebook stock rose US$1.62 or 0.66%, to trade at US$264.23, in Thursday’s early deals as the rally in the so-called FANG stocks continued to stretch legs.