BIPA Lawsuit Takes Aim at Target

Minnesota-based retail giant Target is the latest major corporation to find itself in the crosshairs of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), following a lawsuit filed in a Cook County Court on March 11.

The filing alleges that Target uses “top of the line” facial recognition technology in its Illinois-based stores to collect customers’ biometric data, and fails to notify them of this fact prior to their entry into a given store.

The suit claims that Target uses a network of more than a dozen “investigation centers” along with a pair of forensic labs where video footage is allegedly enhanced and fingerprints are analyzed. The filing acknowledges that the system was used with the intent of detecting shoplifters and preventing theft, but states that the system also managed to capture the facial biometric data of all customers every time they entered or exited Target property.

BIPA legislation states that any business operating within the state of Illinois must obtain the express written consent on an individual before capturing or recording their biometric data. A vast number of lawsuits have been filed under BIPA since its passing in 2008, with a varied roster of companies on the receiving end including Google, Facebook, The Home Depot, Walgreens, Tik Toc, and Dr Pepper.

Over the past few years, many of these cases have also seen massive settlements on behalf of plaintiffs, with Facebook alone having paid hundreds of millions of dollars in its case in 2020.

This suit against Target bears some similarities to the Facebook one, with claimants pursuing damages of $5,000 for each violation deemed ‘intentional’, and $1,000 for each one deemed ‘negligent’.

Source: NBC5 Chicago

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April 16, 2024 – by Tony Bitzionis