A United States federal judge has reportedly approved Facebook’s $650 million payment to settle a class action privacy lawsuit with 1.6 million users in the state of Illinois

US district judge James Donato approved the deal in a class-action lawsuit that was filed in Illinois in 2015, the news agency AFP has reported.

The case concerns allegations that Facebook stored digital scans of peoples faces, through its photograph face-tagging feature, without the permission of its users.

Judge Doato, said: “It will put at least 345 dollars (£247) into the hands of every class member interested in being compensated,” he wrote, calling it “a major win for consumers in the hotly-contested area of digital privacy.”

“We are pleased to have reached a settlement so we can move past this matter, which is in the best interest of our community and our shareholders,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to AFP.

The decision was issued on Friday, according to documents seen by AFP on Sunday.

Facebook has since made the photo-tagging optional.

The news comes days after Tik Tok’s parent company Byte Dance agreed to pay $92million to settle a class action law suit, also in the state of Illinois. The company allegedly collected personal data to track users.

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