TikTok agreed to pay out a share of more than $90 million to many U.S. users following a settlement in a series of class-action lawsuits alleging the company violated their privacy.
The company denied wrongdoing but settled the suits that accused the company of collecting users’ facial data “without sufficient notice and consent.” Now, most U.S. users who used the app prior to Sept. 30 of this year will be eligible to claim a share of the $92 million payout.
“While we disagree with the assertions, rather than go through lengthy litigation, we’d like to focus our efforts on building a safe and joyful experience for the TikTok community,” the company said in a statement, according to Reuters.
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On Monday, the company sent a notification to users who might qualify for compensation, instructing them to send claims to TikTokDataPrivacySettlement.com.
The plaintiffs alleged TikTok created an artificial intelligence system that analyzes users’ facial features to recommend content based on their race, gender, or other characteristics.
The company’s lawyers admitted the app uses artificial intelligence to get “demographic classification” but denied it violated user privacy.
“Although TikTok has admitted that the App uses technology for ‘demographic classification,’ which includes recognizing visual patterns that indicate age, gender or other characteristics, TikTok has contended that this is fundamentally different than facial recognition because it does not create facial templates and is not capable of identifying a user,” read court documents filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.
The company argued that unlike other social media companies, such as Facebook, it did not have a real-name requirement for its users, so it could not associate a face with someone’s identity.
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Because Illinois has a law known as the Biometric Information Privacy Act that specifically protects the biometric privacy of users, Illinois residents could receive as much as six times the amount of money as individuals who live outside the state. If every eligible user submitted a claim, the average U.S. user would get 96 cents while Illinois users would get $5.75, according to an analysis by NBC.
The company also agreed not to use its app to collect biometric data defined by BIPA and to hire a third party to initiate a new data privacy compliance program for its employees and contractors.
Representatives for TikTok did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
