Facebook Is Fined IDR 9.2 Trillion For Face Recognition Feature

Facebook has been scanned (NBC News)

JAKARTA - The Northern California District Court imposed sanctions on Facebook of 650 million US dollars (equivalent to IDR 9.2 trillion). This sanction is due to a number of parties filing a lawsuit against Facebook because the company owned by Mark Zuckerberg has been collecting biometric data since 2015.

In this case, Facebook will have to compensate the 1.6 million users who filed the charges. The company had to pay 345 US dollars (equivalent to IDR 4.9 million) to each person who sued for damages. The court also required Facebook to pay "as soon as possible."

James Donato, as a federal judge in the United States (US), revealed that this is the biggest sanction in privacy cases that occur in the digital field. The imposition of these sanctions gave victory to users who felt their privacy was threatened.

"This decision is a big win for users who are fighting for their rights and privacy in the digital realm," said Donato.

In this case, Facebook does not move and prefers to carry out the sanctions it receives. The company will pay the penalty amount stated in the District Court.

"We are pleased that this lawsuit has been decided, so that we can move on to other issues for the benefit of the community and Facebook shareholders," said Facebook.

According to a Business Insider report, the case which resulted in a fine of IDR 9.2 trillion began in 2015. At that time, Facebook was sued for scanning faces and identifying the faces of its users through the tagging feature. As a result, the appearance of this feature presents a polemic for users in that country.

The reason is, this feature is claimed to violate the privacy regulations that have been set. Scanning of the user's face is carried out without the user's permission. However, Facebook has denied this accusation. According to the company, Facebook has received approval from its users.

"We are always transparent regarding the use of facial recognition technology and users can turn it on or off at any time," explained Facebook at that time.

Previously, the company owned by Mark Zuckerberg was fined IDR 71 trillion because of a Cambridge Analytica data leak. This incident took place in 2019.