IL Residents To Get Larger Share Of $92M TikTok Settlement

ILLINOIS – A class action suit brought against the popular social media platform TikTok is expected to bring a $92 million settlement after the lawsuit alleges the company broke Illinois privacy laws.

TikTok is the latest social media platform that officials say violated the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act laws. The lawsuit maintains that TikTok collected biometric information from users of the app and then disclosed it to a third-party user without the consent of users.

The $92 million settlement was approved by a federal judge in Illinois this week, and Illinois users will receive five additional shares of the settlement compared to residents of other states, according to a news release.

That's because the settlement has two classes, a national class and an Illinois class. Lawyers who filed the suit say that Illinois residents will see more money because of the state’s privacy laws.

“In this class action suit, we alleged that TikTok’s technological sophistication enabled them to collect billions of user attributes, ranging from eye color to people’s facial expressions and physical gestures, and use that data without disclosure to the consumers,” the news release states.

Earlier this year, Facebook users in Illinois received anywhere from $200 to $400 in settlement money after a judge determined that the social media platform violated privacy laws. This week, a judge ordered that the parent company of Snapchat dole out $35 million in funds for violating privacy laws.

TikTok users in Illinois who created videos prior to September 2021 are eligible to receive a portion of the settlement. The deadline to file a claim to receive money was in March, although there has been no announced date for when users of the popular social media platform can expect to see electronic payments hit their bank accounts.