On May 4, Pollock Cohen LLP, Peter Romer-Friedman Law PLLC, and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project filed a class action lawsuit against Starbucks. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a Starbucks customer who claimed that Starbucks violated New York City’s 2021 “Biometric Identifier Information Law” by (a) failing to properly inform customers that their stores are collecting customers’ personal biometric data; and (b) collecting each customer’s biometric data and improperly sharing that data with Amazon.
Two Starbucks stores in Manhattan use Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” technology to track each customer’s movements and purchases in the store’s lounge and marketplace. They also take palm images of customers who enter those areas of the stores with a palm signature. The case was filed under New York City’s 2021 biometric notice law, which requires businesses to post signs warning customers whenever their biometric information is being collected or shared and prohibits sharing customers’ biometric information for anything of value.
