Plaintiffs Drop BIPA Suit Against Target After No FRT Use Found
Plaintiffs voluntarily dropped a class-action privacy case against Target on Wednesday, saying discovery disproved their allegation that the retail giant used facial recognition technology (FRT) in its stores.
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“Discovery has demonstrated to Plaintiffs’ satisfaction that Target does not use facial recognition technology to surveil its Illinois customers,” the motion to dismiss said.
The complaint in case 1:24-cv-04452, filed in May 2024 in the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois, accused Target of using FRT as an anti-theft device in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.
Target had asked for the case to be dismissed for failure to state a claim, though the district court denied it.
In an amended complaint in August 2024, another plaintiff -- Lindsay Schumm -- joined the suit, alleging FRT technology captured her biometrics. This led to a Target visit where she “observed someone whom she believed to be a Target loss prevention employee following” her.
Then, “while waiting in line to pay, [she] received a pop-up notification on her phone that Nichole Jiardina, a Target Asset Protection Operations Manager, had viewed Ms. Schumm’s LinkedIn profile 33 minutes prior -- shortly after she had entered the store.”
But the discovery portion of the case found “the visit to plaintiff Schumm’s LinkedIn profile by a Target employee was in no way related to the use of facial recognition technology,” said the dismissal motion Wednesday.