Home Depot Biometrics Case Leaves Questions, But Not About Compliance: Lawyer
The sudden dismissal of a consumer's biometrics lawsuit in Illinois against Home Depot leaves legal questions about facial scanning technology's future use at self-checkout kiosks, said Kathryn Rattigan, Robinson+Cole lawyer, in a blog post Thursday.
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Still, Rattigan urged firms employing facial recognition technology to avoid thinking that compliance is off the table. In this environment, “the risks of ‘collecting [facial information] now, asking [questions] later’ are simply too high,” she wrote.
Rattigan added, “While the sudden dismissal of the Home Depot lawsuit leaves important legal questions unanswered, it’s a clear reminder that biometric data collection is scrutinized by regulators and private litigants.”
Companies, especially those operating in Illinois, “should treat" compliance with the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) as a "critical business priority” and “proactively” review policies as well as ensure “all required permissions and notices" are in place before deploying technologies that use facial scans or other biometric data. Rattigan noted that BIPA is “recognized as the strictest biometric privacy law in the country.”
Case 1:25-cv-09144, Jankowski v. The Home Depot, was filed in August in the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois. It alleged that the use of facial recognition technology at self-checkouts violated BIPA (see 2508050063).
Some of the key points in the complaint were that no notice or consent was given to the use of “computer vision” technology -- designed to deter theft -- and that Home Depot’s policy to retain biometric information “as long as reasonably necessary” was in violation of BIPA.
Plaintiff Benjamin Jankowski dropped the suit against the large retailer Oct. 30 (see 2510300046), though “underlying reasons for this move remain unclear," as the parties have yet to comment, Rattigan said. The case was formally dismissed Friday (see 2510310031).
She speculated that possible reasons could include settlement discussions, pursuing other legal strategies or “simply a reconsideration of the litigation’s viability.” But since it was a voluntary dismissal without prejudice, Jankowski could refile.