Illinois Residents File Class Action Lawsuit Against Facial Recognition Technology Companies for Allegedly Violating BIPA

A class action lawsuit was filed against several facial recognition technology companies for allegedly violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The defendants are accused of offering a facial recognition search engine called Pimeyes, which collects images from databases across the internet and scans them into their database seemingly without consent. This action is claimed to invade the privacy of millions of Americans. The lawsuit argues that Pimeyes lacks publicly available policies regarding data storage and deletion, in contravention of BIPA's requirements for informed written consent before collecting biometric data.

What this means for youIf you have photos of yourself online, a face search tool like PimEyes may have indexed them without your consent. At home, you can search your own face on such tools and request removal where the service allows it. In government, this case shows why biometric privacy laws like Illinois's BIPA matter.