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YouTube facial data class action lawsuit overview:
- Who: Brad Marschke filed a class action lawsuit against YouTube LLC and Google LLC.
- Why: Marschke claims YouTube and its owner Google are violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act by collecting, storing, and using the biometric facial data of YouTube users without their knowledge or informed written consent.
- Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in Illinois federal court.
YouTube unlawfully collects, uses, and stores the biometric facial data of its users without their knowledge or informed written consent, a new class action lawsuit alleges.
Plaintiff Brad Marschke claims YouTube—along with its owner Google—are violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by not receiving written consent or offering data retention and destruction policies before collecting consumers’ biometric data.
Marschke wants to represent an Illinois class of consumers who have had their faceprints or face templates captured, collected, stored, or otherwise obtained by and through YouTube.
Marschke argues YouTube users who use its “Face Blur” tool in its YouTube studio have their biometric data in the form of face scans “surreptitiously” captured and stored by the video sharing company.
YouTube accused of collecting faceprints through video thumbnail photos
YouTube also can collect faceprints of its users in the event they choose a thumbnail for their video which contains an image of a face, the YouTube class action alleges.
“Through these practices, Defendants not only disregard their users’ privacy rights, they also violate BIPA, which was specifically designed to protect Illinois consumers from practices like Defendants’,” states the YouTube class action.
Marschke is demanding a jury trial and requesting injunctive and declaratory relief along with an award of statutory damages for himself and all class members.
YouTube agreed to pay $4.3 million in July in order to resolve claims the company failed to mitigate graphic content that its moderators had to view and failed to provide the workers with support for the psychological trauma they suffered from doing the job.
Have you had your biometric data collected by YouTube without your knowledge or informed written consent? Let us know in the comments!
The plaintiff is represented by Gary M. Klinger and Nick Suciu III of Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman PLLC, and Frank A. Richter, James E. Barz, Stuart A. Davidson, and Alexander Cohen of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP.
The YouTube facial data class action lawsuit is Marschke v. YouTube LLC, et al., Case No. 3:22-cv-02022, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.
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