LAWSUIT BROUGHT AGAINST UNITED FOR ALLEGED VIOLATIONS OF STATE PRIVACY LAWS
January 30, 2023
On November 23, 2022, a class action lawsuit was filed in Illinois state court against United Airlines (“United”) alleging that United violated passengers’ privacy rights by collecting facial geometry for identity verification purposes using gate photo kiosks before the passengers boarded United flights. The plaintiff claimed that this process was in violation of Illinois’ state biometric privacy law, which requires that entities adhere to certain practices and provide disclosures before they can capture, use, or store the biometric information of individuals, such as facial geometry or fingerprints. The plaintiff also alleged that United continues to use traditional methods of verifying passenger identities (i.e., checking passengers’ photo ID’s), but does not disclose to passengers that the traditional method is an option instead of being scanned and identified by the gate photo kiosks.
The plaintiff in this case is seeking to represent a class of passengers to include anyone who has had their faces scanned at the gate photo kiosks before boarding United flights. The relief requested includes $5,000 in damages for each finding of a willful or reckless violation of the Illinois privacy law and $1,000 for each finding of a negligent violation of the law on the part of United. The court has yet to make a determination in this case.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com 202-659-6622) or Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com 202-659-6665).
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