Turing Video, Amazon among latest biometric data privacy lawsuit targets

Turing Video has been named in the lawsuit of a customer’s employee, which alleges violations of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), as spotted by IPVM (subscription required and recommended).

Supermarket chain Albertson’s deployed contactless temperature screening systems at its stores, which also include Safeway, Vons, and Jewel-Osco, in November of last year. Albertson’s, however, is not named in the suit, which targets only the technology provider.

The potential class action was originally filed in Cook County Circuit Court and seeks damages which could exceed $10 million. It alleges biometric scans were stored by Turing Video for contact tracing purposes, without collecting the necessary consent, and then disclosed it, again violating BIPA, with database host AWS. The suit has since been removed to federal court by Turing Video, with the company saying in a filing that damages could reach $12 million.

Instagram plaintiffs fight arbitration

Plaintiffs’ attorneys in a BIPA suit against Instagram filed and amended a motion claiming that neither plaintiff was presented with, let alone agreed to an arbitration agreement that the company’s parent Facebook has filed for, Law Street Media writes.

The motion was filed after Northern District of California Judge John S. Tigar permitted discovery related to the arbitration agreement claim.

In a twist, the plaintiffs claim that a paralegal learned second-hand from Facebook engineers that the company does not retain data about the presenting or agreement to historic terms of use by individual users. Facebook council is reported to have blocked inquiries into the exchange between the engineers and the paralegal on grounds of privilege and work product protections.

The plaintiffs are asking for the case to be allowed to proceed.

Virtual try-on technology

A BIPA suit has been filed against Amazon over its alleged use of biometrics in technology its customers can use to virtually try on makeup and clothing, reports Law360.

The suit, filed in state court, alleges violations of BIPA’s informed consent rules.

In an unrelated case under the Illinois biometric data law, Zenni Optical is arguing that the use of its website constitutes an agreement which compels arbitration of the prospective class action, according to Law360.

Limits argued in White Castle hearing

Attorneys made their arguments to a panel of Seventh Circuit judges about whether each instance of biometric scanning count as individual violations this week in the Cothron v. White Castle case. One of the judges, Frank Easterbrook, asked for precedent regarding the limits of the Illinois law, Courthouse News Service reports, but neither party’s representatives could offer any.

The case is complicated by its earlier removal to federal court, where statutes of limitation are interpreted differently than in some states.

A plaintiffs’ representative suggested the matter be sent to Illinois Supreme Court to “ensure finality.”

The judges will issue a ruling at an unknown later date.

Shutterfly $6.75M settlement approved

Shutterfly’s settlement of a biometric data privacy suit in Illinois for $6.75 million has been approved by Judge Raymond W. Mitchell, Law360 reports.

The deal, preliminarily reached earlier this year, settles claims that the company processed and stored biometric data without satisfying the informed consent requirements set out by BIPA.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys are slated to receive 35 percent of the settlement proceeds, or $2.4 million. The class is made up of 950,000 Illinois residents who appeared on photographs uploaded to Shutterfly.

Article Topics

Amazon  |  biometric data  |  Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA)  |  biometrics  |  data protection  |  Facebook  |  lawsuits  |  legislation  |  privacy  |  Shutterfly  |  Turing Video