Miami, LA Firms Sue Google Over Facial Recognition Photo Scans
The complaint claims Google introduced facial recognition to its cloud service for storing and sharing photos without obtaining anyone's consent.
February 07, 2020 at 12:32 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on The Recorder
Google headquarters. Photo: Shutterstock.com
Law firms in Miami and Los Angeles claim in a class action that the Google Photos service uses facial recognition technology that violates an Illinois biometric privacy law with stiff statutory penalties.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California claims Google failed to get the consent or written release required under Illinois' 2008 Biometric Information Privacy Act requiring the collectors of unique identifiers to detail how they store and protect the sensitive information.
Fingerprints, iris scans, DNA and face geometry are protected, and the law carries statutory damages of $1,000 for negligent violations and $5,000 for violations found to be intentional or reckless.
David Milian at Carey Rodriguez Milian Gonya in Miami and Tina Wolfson at Ahdoot & Wolfson in Los Angeles claim Google "failed to obtain consent from anyone" when it introduced facial recognition to Google Photos, its cloud service for storing and sharing photos.
"Google's proprietary facial recognition technology scans each and every photo uploaded to the cloud-based Google Photos for faces, extracts geometric data relating to the unique points and contours (i.e., biometric identifiers) of each face, and then uses that data to create and store a template of each face — all without ever informing anyone of this practice," the complaint said.
They also claim Google holds several patents for facial recognition that detail how the company scans photos for facial identifiers and creates face templates "without obtaining informed written consent."
Representatives for Google had no response by deadline Friday.
Milian and Wolfson also had no comment.
Milian previously sued Google in the Northern District of Illinois for the unlawful collection and storage of biometric identifiers under the same law in 2016. The lawsuit was combined with a larger case and dismissed on Google's summary judgment motion in December 2018.
The Google lawsuit comes in the wake of the announcement of a proposed $550 million settlement by Facebook Inc. in lawsuits bringing claims under BIPA. The Facebook deal, which has yet to be filed in court, is subject to approval from U.S. District Judge James Donato of the Northern District of California. Donato at a hearing Thursday asked lawyers in that case to provide detailed explanations of why the deal would pay class members less than statutory damages amounts.
Read more:
Judge Overseeing $550M Facebook 'Tag Suggestions' Settlement Wants Details on Individual Payouts
Facebook Agrees to $550M Deal to Settle Biometric Suit Over 'Tag Suggestions'
Facebook's Facial Recognition Could Violate 'Privacy Interests,' Appeals Court Rules
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