Amazon faces lawsuit over alleged biometric tracking at Go stores in New York

Back in 2021, a regulation took impact in New York City that requires companies to put up conspicuous indicators in the event that they’re amassing clients’ biometric data, similar to their facial scans and fingerprints. Now, Amazon is going through a proposed class-action lawsuit that accuses the corporate of failing to tell clients at its Go cashierless stores that it was amassing their biometrics. 

In the lawsuit (PDF), filed by Alfredo Alberto Rodriguez Perez, the plaintiff argues that Go stores continuously use clients’ biometrics “by scanning [their palms] to identify them and by applying computer vision, deep learning algorithms, and sensor fusion that measure the shape and size of each customer’s body to identify customers, track where they move in the stores, and determine what they have purchased.” It mentioned the corporate solely put up indicators about its biometric tracking actions over a 12 months after the regulation went into impact. 

Amazon’s Go stores give customers the choice to take no matter product they’ve off cabinets and stroll out with out the necessity to take a look at. To be capable to enter these stores, clients might want to scan a code from the Amazon app with a linked bank card. However, some places supply Amazon One, the e-commerce big’s palm-based identification and fee service, as an entry possibility. The plaintiff’s grievance mentioned the signal informs clients that Amazon won’t be amassing their biometrics until they select to enroll in Amazon One. However, “Amazon Go stores do collect biometric identifier information on every single customer, including information on the size and shape of every customers body,” the grievance argues.

In an announcement despatched to NBC News, an Amazon spokesperson defended the corporate’s practices and applied sciences. They defined that Amazon doesn’t use facial recognition, and any system it makes use of to determine customers inside its Go stores do not represent biometric tech. “Only shoppers who choose to enroll in Amazon One and choose to be identified by hovering their palm over the Amazon One device have their palm-biometric data securely collected,” they insisted, “and these individuals are provided the appropriate privacy disclosures during the enrollment process.”

The lawsuit’s consequence may then rely upon whether or not the court docket sees somebody’s physique form and measurement as biometric data. In the grievance, the plaintiff quotes NYC Admin Code 22-1201’s definition of a biometric identifier in context of the regulation as “a physiological or biological characteristic that is used by or on behalf of a commercial establishment, singly or in combination, to identify, or assist in identifying, an individual, including, but not limited to: (i) a retina or iris scan, (ii) a fingerprint or voiceprint, (iii) a scan of hand or face geometry, or any other identifying characteristic.”