$5M Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against The Walt Disney Co. Over Its Use Of Facial Recognition Technology – AfroTech
A class action lawsuit was filed against The Walt Disney Co. over its use of facial recognition technology.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the lawsuit was filed in federal court in California over allegations that The Walt Disney Co. violated privacy, competition, and consumer protection laws by using its facial recognition technology on guests at park entrances. The complaint said that Walt Disney Co. “does not adequately disclose the use of their biometric collection, so consumers — which almost always include children — have no idea that Disney is collecting this highly sensitive data,” according to the outlet.
“While Disney publicly states ‘[t]he security, integrity, and confidentiality of your information are extremely important to us, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable,’ it appears visitors cannot discern which of the entrances into Disney Theme Parks actually are the ones to clearly avoid to ‘opt-out’ of facial recognition,” the filing said, per USA Today.
The Walt Disney Co.’s facial recognition technology launched in April at Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The technology reportedly scans guests’ faces, converts them into numerical identifiers, and matches them with ticket data. Disney’s intent in rolling out facial recognition technology was to improve guests’ arrival experience, streamline reentry, and prevent fraud, Fox News reports.
The Walt Disney Co. claims it keeps the data from its facial recognition technology for 30 days. The exception to this is when the data is required for legal or fraud-prevention purposes, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The lawsuit alleges that this “simply cannot be true given the biometric information is compared to when guests first bought tickets or annual passes and associated their pictures with those tickets or passes.”
“Guests should be able to expressly opt in to this type of sensitive facial recognition technology with written consent — the onus of privacy rights should not be on the victim,” said Blake Yagman, a lawyer representing affected visitors, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “Given how sensitive facial recognition data is, explicit written consent should be required to protect the privacy of guests at Disney Theme Parks.”
The plaintiffs are seeking at least $5 million in damages and want Disney to require written consent from visitors before facial recognition technology is deployed, USA Today reports.
