A federal judge allowed a class-action lawsuit against Facebook Inc. to proceed Monday, according to a Reuters report. The suit challenges the social-network giant over its gathering of facial recognition data on photos without users' permission. Facebook users in Illinois sued the company in 2015 for violating a state privacy law. Ruling in San Francisco, Judge James Donato said the claim meets class-action status, and allowed the class to include Facebook users in Illinois whose facial recognition algorithms were stored after June 7, 2011. In a statement, Facebook said the case "has no merit and will defend ourselves vigorously." It's the latest privacy controversy for Facebook; last week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent two days answering questions on Capitol Hill over the Cambridge Analytica user-date scandal.