An anti-privacy sanction hits Targets after claims the company flouted the common biometric privacy law in Illinois.
The state of Illinois upholds the law to protect against the unlawful collection and sharing of biometric information without consent.
The Illinois Supreme Court has previously ruled in favour of companies being sued for anti-privacy data practices. Instagram also had to face the court’s orders to pay a $68.5 million fine where a significant breach of data use was filed concerning facial recognition technologies in the app.
Facial recognition companies and large corporations employing this technology are facing legal action, with notable settlements in Illinois against Facebook, Google, TikTok and Snapchat.
The lawsuit against the retailer, based in Minnesota, was filed on March 11 out of concerns for customers’ data being collected without their knowledge. Despite biometric checkouts being adopted by the retailer – enabling self-services and measures against shoplifting – the law on its customers privacy is violated.
Target also owns forensic labs for analysing CCTV and biometrics with “electronic biometrics”.
