Connect with us

Digital Health

Amazon and Starbucks Sued for Collecting, Retaining, Storing, Converting, Using, Sharing, and Profiting from Palm Scans

Amazon and coffee retailer Starbucks are being sued in U.S. federal district court for misusing customers’ biometric identifiers.
Biometric authentication…

Published

on

This article was originally published by The Vaccine Impact

Comments by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News

Several consumers in New York have sued Amazon.com and Starbucks for unauthorized use of their palm scans.

Plaintiffs bring this action for damages and other legal and equitable remedies resulting from the illegal actions of Amazon and Starbucks in collecting, retaining, storing, converting, using, sharing, and profiting from Plaintiffs’and other similarly situated individuals’ biometric identifier information (referred to at times as “biometrics”)—their hand geometry (“hand geometry” or “palm scans” or “palm prints”) and/or body geometry (“physiological characteristics concern[ing] the shape or composition of the body”)—in direct violation of the New York City Biometric Identifier Information Law.

On January 11, 2021, the City of New York enacted a new law that requires retailers and other commercial establishments that collect, retain, convert, store, or share customers’ “biometric identifier information” to notify their customers of these practices before customers enter those establishments. SeeN.Y.C. Admin. Code § 22-1201 et seq.

The type of information the law applies to includes any physiological or biological characteristic that is used to identify (or assist in identifying) a person, such asfacial recognition, retina scans, fingerprints, handprints, or any other identifying characteristic like the shape or size of a person’s body. (Source.)

BiometricUpdate.com reported on this.

Amazon and coffee retailer Starbucks are being sued in U.S. federal district court for misusing customers’ biometric identifiers.

The proposed class action (2:23-cv-00852) has been filed in the Western District Court of Washington. The named plaintiffs, Suzanne Mallouk, Alfredo Rodriguez Perez and Arjun Dhawan, claim their privacy rights were violated when visiting New York City stores that used Amazon’s One palm biometric scanners.

(The trio had filed separate cases but joined their claims in the state of Washington, which is home to both defendants.)

No specific sum is sought in the trial.

Biometric authentication as a method of payment at Amazon’s Go stores was introduced in New York City in 2019. One scanners have since been added to other stores owned by Amazon. It is also alleged that Amazon uses a person’s size and shape to identify them in the stores.

Each plaintiff alleges that Amazon is violating a 2021 city law by scanning palms without first posting required notices. That year, Starbucks went into business with Amazon in the first of multiple Starbucks-Go stores.

Plaintiff court documents charge that Starbucks “sells, trades and shares customers’ biometric identifier information with Amazon in exchange for various things of value, and otherwise profits” from the deal.

Specifically, the defendants are charged with “collecting, retaining, storing, converting, using, sharing and profiting” from hand geometries in violation of New York City’s Biometric Identifier Information Law (BII Law).

The defendants were obligated by the law to post caution signs on entry doors, but reportedly failed to do so.

According to court documents, the plaintiffs wrote to Amazon complaining about the alleged violations. One plaintiff also wrote to Starbucks but received no reply. (Full article.)

Comment on this article at HealthImpactNews.com.

See Also:

Understand the Times We are Currently Living Through

Who are the Children of Abraham?

The Brain Myth: Your Intellect and Thoughts Originate in Your Heart, Not Your Brain

God Will Not be Made a Fool – A Person Reaps What he Sows

An Invitation to the Technologists to Join the Winning Side

“Dataism” is the New Religion of AI and Transhumanism: Those Who Own and Control the Data Control Life

The God of All Comfort

Fact Check: “Christianity” and the Christian Religion is NOT Found in the Bible – The Person Jesus Christ Is

How to Determine if you are a Disciple of Jesus Christ or Not

Synagogue of Satan: Why It’s Time to Leave the Corporate Christian Church

What Happens When a Holy and Righteous God Gets Angry? Lessons from History and the Prophet Jeremiah

Insider Exposes Freemasonry as the World’s Oldest Secret Religion and the Luciferian Plans for The New World Order

The post Amazon and Starbucks Sued for Collecting, Retaining, Storing, Converting, Using, Sharing, and Profiting from Palm Scans first appeared on Vaccine Impact.


medicine

shares

Digital Health

Keep it Short

By KIM BELLARD OK, I admit it: I’m on Facebook. I still use Twitter – whoops, I mean X. I have an Instagram account but don’t think I’ve ever posted….

Continue Reading
Digital Health

Asian Fund for Cancer Research announces Degron Therapeutics as the 2023 BRACE Award Venture Competition Winner

The Asian Fund for Cancer Research (AFCR) is pleased to announce that Degron Therapeutics was selected as the winner of the 2023 BRACE Award Venture Competition….

Continue Reading
Digital Health

Seattle startup Olamedi building platform to automate health clinic communications

A new Seattle startup led by co-founders with experience in health tech is aiming to automate communication processes for healthcare clinics with its software…

Continue Reading

Trending