Privacy Violation. As the industry embraces technology at an ever-accelerating pace, here’s a sobering reminder that our new-found ability to gather consumer information and use it to enhance service is not without its pitfalls. Bio-metric enabled machines are hoving into view in the UK, but ‘let’s be careful out there…’
A resident of the US sate of Illinois is suing Compass Group USA for collecting and storing thumbprints harvested by its bio-metric vending machines without securing proper permission or indicating how long personal data will be stored, resulting in Privacy Violation, according to a Law360 statement reported by Vending Times
Plaintiff Jennifer Kessler said in her complaint that she scanned her thumbprint to buy items from Compass vending machines and was never informed about any biometric data retention policy, or if the company would ever delete her information.
Kessler claims in her in the lawsuit that she has been a victim of Privacy Violation, under a state law which requires employers to get informed consent before collecting, using and storing bio-metric information.
Brandon Wise of Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane, Kessler’s attorney, said she has “fallen victim to the unlawful practices of large corporations that disregard Illinois citizen’s fundamental right to privacy.”
“At relevant times, the defendant has taken the rather invasive and coercive step of requiring citizens to be fingerprint scanned, and then using biometric information captured from those fingerprint scans, and data derived therefrom, to identify the citizen at defendant’s vending machines,” Kessler said in the complaint.
Kessler seeks to represent other who have been subjected to a similar Privacy Violation by scanning a fingerprint or thumbprint in a Compass-owned or operated machine in Illinois during the applicable statutory period.
She is seeking $5,000 in damages for each willful violation or $1,000 for each negligent violation.
Privacy Violation: You have been warned.
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