COURT DECISION THAT HELD GOOGLE PHOTOS COULD COLLECT IMAGES FOR FACIAL RECOGNITION HAS BEEN APPEALED

The District Court decision of Lindabeth Rivera and Joseph Weiss vs. Google has been taken up to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.  The lower court in Illinois held last year that Google Photos, which collected, and applied its facial recognition software to, facial images without permission of the individual Plaintiffs, could not maintain a suit for damages because they had not suffered any concrete injuries sufficient to establish standing to bring suit.

The Court held that the Plaintiffs therefore lacked subject-matter jurisdiction, and granted Summary Judgment to Google. the Plaintiffs appealed.

Both Appellant and Appellee have, pursuant to order of the appeals court, filed memoranda directed to the jurisdictional issue; the Seventh Circuit has not yet ruled .