The case is Rivera v. Google, Google Wins The Case Over Facial Recognition Software.

The case is Rivera v. Google, 16-cv-02714, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).
A lawsuit filed against Google by users who said the world’s largest search engine violated their privacy by using facial recognition technology was dismissed by a judge on Saturday.

Google Photos automatically creates “face templates” from uploaded photos and then lets the uploading user sort the photos by face. The court assumes, without deciding, that the face templates and associated data constitute biometric information pursuant to the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Users can opt-out of this feature; but the court assumes, without deciding, that users (and anyone else depicted in the photos) did not consent to the feature. Google claims it only uses the face templates for the sorting feature. There is no evidence Google has disclosed the face templates, voluntarily or involuntarily, to any third parties; that Google uses the data for data mining or ad targeting purposes; or that Google links the data with other data in its possession. (Nevertheless, it’s easy to be skeptical of Google’s claim that it only uses this data for a single purpose given Google’s manifold data usage practices in virtually every other aspect of its business). The plaintiffs “testified that they did not suffer any financial, physical, or emotional injury apart from feeling offended by the unauthorized collection.” Despite that, the plaintiffs sued Google for BIPA and other claims. The court dismisses the BIPA claim for lack of Article III standing.

U.S. District Judge Edmond E. Chang in Chicago cited a lack of “concrete injuries” to the plaintiffs. The suit, initially filed in March 2016, alleged Alphabet Inc.’s Google collected and stored biometric data from photographs using facial recognition software, running afoul of a unique Illinois law against using a person’s image without permission.