• TikTok parent ByteDance Ltd has agreed to pay $92 million towards the settlement of the class-action lawsuit for alleged user data collection by TikTok, the Wall Street Journal reports.

• The settlement marks the closure of a long dispute in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois over the illegal collection of teenage user data, including face scans to drive a recommendation engine.

• However, the settlement is subject to court approval which could take months to complete.

• The lawsuit was triggered by 21 separate class-action complaints representing young users last year in California and Illinois.

• The plaintiffs’ attorneys, who represented users as young as eight years old, alleged TikTok’s secretive collection of biometric data to refine its targeted advertising and content recommendations.

• Such unpermitted data collection may lead to severe penalties under Illinois’ biometric privacy law. Last year, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) agreed to pay $650 million to settle a case under the ruling.

• The plaintiffs’ attorneys also alleged user data storage in China, possibly exposing it to government scrutiny.

• TikTok denied the allegations. It has previously denied biometric data collection, including face scans and user data sharing with Beijing.

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