Amazon Sued Over Biometric Privacy in New York

Amazon is once again facing a lawsuit concerning biometric data privacy, this time under a New York City regulation. A Brooklyn man has filed a class-action lawsuit in a New York federal court over allegations that the company violated the Biometric Identifier Information Law.

The law, which came into effect in January of 2022, requires companies to post a clear and conspicuous sign near store entrances that use biometric scanning devices. Alfredo Rodriguez Perez claims that he visited an Amazon Go store in New York on January 30, and alleges that he was not informed of Amazon’s biometric data collection practices at the store and that no such disclosure notice had been posted.

He reportedly mailed a letter to the store, notifying them of the lack of disclosure, but the letter went unanswered. Amazon later posted a sign but, according to the complaint, the sign is difficult to read and is placed too far from the actual entrance to the store.

The lawsuit alleges that Amazon Go stores collect palmprint and body scan information from its customers without providing proper notice under the New York City Biometric Identifier Information Law. The suit also alleges that Amazon tracks customers who decline to use the palm scanner, which is a violation of the law.

The proposed class-action lawsuit seeks to enforce the biometric law and could potentially result in Amazon paying tens of millions of dollars, if the thousands of people who have visited the store since the law took effect are certified by a judge to represent an affected class of litigants.

Amazon has previously faced multiple lawsuits under Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act, and is believed to be the first company sued under the new NYC regulation.

Sources: Forbes, Bloomberg Law

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March 23, 2023 – by The FindBiometrics Editorial Team