Payments

Customer sues Amazon over biometric identification notification

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March 23, 2023

A customer has filed a class action suit against Amazon for failing to properly notify customers about its biometric identification practices at New York City Amazon Go stores.

Amazon disputes the claims.

The plaintiff is seeking a jury trial and is asking for a permanent injunction requiring Amazon to comply with the law at all its stores in the city, and award of statutory damages and payment of "a reasonable service award" in recognition of services rendered.

The suit, filed this month in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, claims a New York City law requires companies to notify customers they are collecting biometric information before they enter the store, including facial recognition, retina scans, fingerprints, handprints or other identifying characteristics such as the size or shape of someone's body.

To make its "Just Walk Out" technology possible, the Amazon Go stores regularly collect customers' biometric identifier information, including scanning the palms of some customers using computer vision and sensor fusion that measures the size and shape of customers' bodies to identify them, track where they go in the stores and monitor what they purchase, according to lawsuit.

The city's disclosure requirement became effective Jan. 15, 2022, according to the suit.

The plaintiff, Alfredo Rodriguez Perez, advised Amazon in writing on Feb. 7 he visited the store at 80 Pine Street and that the company had not posted a sign, as obligated, notifying customers they were collecting biometric information.

Rather than respond to Perez, the company allegedly posted a sign outside its stores on or around March 14, 2023 a few days after The New York Times ran a story on the matter before posting a sign.

The sign, according to the suit, fails to disclose that Amazon converts and retains biometric identifier information. In addition, it tells customers it will not collect biometric identifier information unless they use the Amazon One palm scanner to enter the store, even though stores do collect identifier information on every customer.

"We do not use facial recognition technology in any of our stores, and claims made otherwise are false," an Amazon spokesperson told Kiosk Marketplace in an email. "Amazon One, our contactless, palm-based identity and payment service, is one of the entry options offered at select Amazon Go stores along with credit card and the Amazon app. 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, and these individuals are provided the appropriate privacy disclosures during the enrollment process.

"The customer is always in control of when they choose to be identified using their palm."