Walgreens Facial Recognition Security Cameras Prompt Class Action Lawsuit

Walgreens is facing a new class action lawsuit over claims that its facial recognition security cameras violate Illinois privacy law.

The pharmacy chain is being sued in Cook County court by Leroy Jacobs, a customer who says he started noticing the cameras near the entrance of the Walgreens he shops at in Chicago on Sept. 23. On that day, and during subsequent trips to the store, Jacobs says the facial recognition security cameras scanned his face without his approval to do so.

Such scans are unlawful under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), Jacobs and his lawyers claim. Because of that, he filed the class action lawsuit Oct. 2.

The plaintiff wants to represent an unspecified number of other customers who were also scanned by the cameras without their approval. It is unclear how many other customers might be eligible to participate as Class Members, but Jacobs’ lawyers said there are “at least many thousands.”

Jacobs and every other customer of a Walgreens in Illinois that uses facial recognition security cameras “lost the right to control the collection, use, and storage of their biometric identifiers and information and were exposed to ongoing, serious, and irreversible privacy risks — simply by going to the stores to pick up prescriptions, to shop, or going to work,” the class action lawsuit says.

“Databases containing sensitive, proprietary biometric data can be hacked, breached, or otherwise exposed,” lawyers for the plaintiff argue, which means Jacobs’ has been put at risk without his permission.

Specifically, Jacobs says he has seen the cameras at the entrances and exits at the Walgreens at North State and West Madison streets and the Walgreens at North State and West Randolph streets. He claims the company uses the same facial recognition security cameras to scan and save biometric facial identifiers at hundreds of other Walgreens locations in Illinois.

Facial recognition cameras and software were developed for use in law enforcement and security and are used by stores to prevent shoplifting and theft. The technology maps the geometry of every face that passes in front of it and picks up distinguishing markers.

Illinois lawmakers passed the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act in 2008 to establish guidelines for how and when biometric data can be collected and used.

Identity theft by conventional means, using a person’s personal and financial information, is dangerous, but victims can change their account numbers, passwords and access codes to reestablish their identities on paper. Victims of biometric identity theft cannot change their physical identifiers.

The law prohibits private entities, such as stores, from collecting biometric data from people without getting their informed written consent first. It also requires them to have a written policy for the retention and destruction of that information.

Those that do collect biometric data are barred from disclosing it without written consent and from profiting from disclosure even if consent is obtained.

Finally, the law demands stores and others protect collected biometrics in a “similar, if not more protective, manner [than] other confidential and sensitive information,” such as Social Security numbers and credit card information.

Walgreens never informed its customers that their biometric data was being collected, nor did it seek their informed consent to do so, the class action lawsuit says. It also claims the company does not have an established retention schedule — a policy to govern how long it keeps the data before destroying it — that has been made available to the public.

If Jacobs had been asked for his consent, he would not have given it if he knew Walgreens was going to keep his biometrics indefinitely, he said.

“No amount of time or money can compensate [the] plaintiff if his biometric data has been compromised by the intentional, reckless, and/or negligent procedures through which [Walgreens] captures, stores, uses and disseminates” it, the class action lawsuit says.

Jacobs wants the court to award him $1,000 in damages for every negligent violation of the Biometric Information Privacy Act and $5,000 for every willful violation, the lawsuit says.

Have you shopped at a Walgreens store and been scanned by a facial recognition security camera without your written consent? Tell us about it in the comment section below.

Jacobs and the proposed Class Members are represented by Ryan Stephan and Haley Jenkins of Stephan Zouras LLP.

The Walgreens Facial Recognition Security Cameras Class Action Lawsuit is Leroy Jacobs, et al. v. Walgreens Company, Case No. 2020CH06118, in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Chancery Division, Illinois.

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