EDWARDSVILLE - A class action lawsuit alleges a facial recognition search engine that searches the internet for peoples' photos invades their privacy in violation of Illinois law.
Plaintiffs Amy Newton, Amanda Curry, Manuel Clayton, Misty McGraw, and Nicholas Clayton filed a class action lawsuit in the Madison County Circuit Court against Pimeyes Sp. Z O.O, Transaction Cloud, Inc., Face Recognition Solutions, LTD., Carribex LTD., EMEA Robotics, LTD., Public Mirror SP. Z O.O, Lukasz Kowalczyk, Denis Tatina, Giorgi Gobronidze, and Does 1-25, citing negligence and carelessness in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
According to the lawsuit, defendants offer a service called Pimeyes, a facial search engine that can search the internet for photos that contain a given face. The company charges users $29.99 per month for this service.
The lawsuit alleges that to build this powerful search engine, the defendants have collected images of millions of Americans from databases across the internet and scanned them using artificial intelligence into their own database without consent.
According to the lawsuit, many of these databases contain numerous images of the plaintiffs. This database is massive and continuously updated with new photos, the lawsuit states.
The suit adds that the company's service can be used by anyone to search for images of anyone else to download without that person's consent.
The lawsuit states that BIPA laws require that prior to collecting biometric data, companies must inform visitors in writing that biometric data will be collected and stored. It also states that visitors must be informed in writing of the specific purpose of why the biometric data is being collected, how long it will be stored, and companies must receive a written release from visitors for the collection of biometric data.
The plaintiffs argue that the defendants invaded their privacy and the privacy of untold Americans by collecting and storing their biometric data without informed consent. They add that Pimeyes does not have written, publicly available policies identifying how long it will store biometric data or information for permanently destroying biometric data.
The plaintiffs are demanding a jury trial to seek damages for themselves and everyone in the class action lawsuit, plus court costs, attorney fees and any other relief the court deems proper. They are also requesting the court to issue an order requiring the defendant to comply with BIPA and cease the collection of biometric data without informed written consent. They are represented in this case by the attorneys of Peiffer, Wolf, Carr, Kane, Conway & Wise, LLP in St. Louis.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 2023LA000629