Amazon Gets Ready to Go to Court Over Its Biometric Data Collection
A new lawsuit alleges that Amazon Go has been keeping tabs on its customers with biometric data in New York City, where collecting such data without making it explicitly known violates the law.
A customer, Alfredo Perez, recently filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that Amazon Go does not disclose that biometric data, including customer body shape, size and identifying palm print information, is collected in-store from visitors, NBC News reports.
New York City law requires businesses collecting such data to inform customers of it by posting signage. The lawsuit further alleges that appropriate signage was not in place until a year after the disclosure law was enacted.
Amazon said the information that it collects does not constitute biometric data. It said claims of the use of facial recognition technology are outright false and that palm print data is only collected by those voluntarily using the Amazon One identification solution.
Technology that collects or utilizes biometric data has grown more prevalent in recent years for personal use in solutions like Apple’s Face ID and at retail.
Walgreens rolled out coolers featuring iris-tracking technology and other biometric info-gathering capabilities, which facilitate inferences about customers and their behavior, The Atlantic reported when the drugstore first piloted the technology.
But such technology remains a perennial concern for privacy advocates, who take issue with the lack of transparency and customer control over what data is collected and how it is stored and used. It also continues to receive a mixed response from customers, some of whom find the technology creepy and invasive.
For instance, on the Upper West Side of New York City, the New York Post reported that a Fairway store using facial recognition technology for shoplifting prevention had drawn criticism from some shoppers who expressed concerns about being surveilled. The grocer, which features signage outside stating that it collects biometric data, has found the technology helpful in reducing shrink.