FB pixel

Lawsuit filed against retail giants in Illinois alleges biometric data privacy violations

Defendants accused of using Clearview app to catch shoplifters
Lawsuit filed against retail giants in Illinois alleges biometric data privacy violations
 

A group of major retailers with stores in Illinois are facing a potential class action lawsuit alleging they violated the State’s biometric data privacy rules by contracting Clearview AI.

The Cook County Record reports that after their attempt to include a new set of retailers including Kohl’s, Walmart, The Home Depot and Best Buy in multi-district litigation against Clearview for the use of its facial recognition was rejected, plaintiffs filed a new suit in federal court.

The suit alleges that each retailer used Clearview’s biometric service to search faces captured on their surveillance cameras against the company’s database of images scraped from the internet.

The new allegations include claims under the Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act’s rules on collecting informed consent from people before capturing their biometrics, providing a written policy on biometric data retention and destruction, profiting from people’s biometrics and disclosure or dissemination of biometric data. Those rules are covered in BIPA Sections 15 (a, b, c and d).

Further, plaintiffs say victims of the above violations also include their children, who are minors.

The retailers used Clearview’s technology and database “in order to identify people whose images appeared in surveillance footage obtained from Defendant’s retail stores in located within the State of Illinois,” they say. The Record suggests that detecting shoplifters was the retailers’ motivation.

The attempt to add the retailers to the existing MDL was disallowed because it was made too close to the September 26 discovery deadline, U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman said in her opinion, which was posted by Law360. Johnson also noted that the move would shift the focus away from named defendant class representative Macy’s, with which they have no clear corporate connection.

“Equally important,” writes Coleman, “plaintiffs do not explain why Macy’s Inc. and its affiliates are inadequate named representatives nor do plaintiffs cogently explain why these additional defendants are necessary to their claims at this juncture, especially because they were aware that these retailers were Clearview’s clients before they filed the operative complaint in May 2021.”

The attempt would also have been vulnerable for being filed after the one-year statute of limitations had run out.

Those latter question is bound to arise in the newly-launched case as well.

Article Topics

 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 

Latest Biometrics News

 

Biometrics providers and credentials level up with new capabilities

Biometrics is a fast-evolving field about persistence, so new versions of major digital identity providers and biometric technology companies naturally…

 

Alan Goode offers insights on booming transitional IDV market on BU Podcast

Technology is transforming identity verification. According to Alan Goode of Goode Intelligence, by 2030, digital identity verification will pass traditional…

 

Share less data in more places: inching towards decentralized digital ID for travel

The travel industry is slowly shifting to a more decentralized model of digital identity. This was one of the key…

 

Clearview takes fresh legal hits over Canada class action, UK fine

Few biometrics companies have taken a bigger regulatory and legal beating than Clearview AI. It has already been a rough…

 

Mexico makes biometric identifier mandatory for all citizens

Mexico has officially introduced a digital identification system by signing a law that turned the previously optional biometric-based citizen code…

 

MOSIP highlights the UN DPI Safeguards Initiative

The United Nations’ DPI Safeguards Initiative has released 259 recommendations designed to guide regulators, advocates, donors, technology providers and governments…

Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Biometric Market Analysis

Most Viewed This Week

Featured Company

Biometrics Insight, Opinion

Digital ID In-Depth

Biometrics White Papers

Biometrics Events