Delivery Robots Sued for Alleged Biometric Privacy Violations in Illinois
Two customers are suing Coco Robotics and Serve Robotics, alleging their delivery robots illegally scanned faces and hands without consent, violating Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
Two customers in Chicago have filed separate lawsuits against Coco Robotics and Serve Robotics, alleging that the companies' delivery robots illegally scanned their faces and hands without obtaining proper consent. The lawsuits claim that the collected biometric data was stored alongside personal information and used to train artificial intelligence models, thereby violating Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
The plaintiffs assert that the robots, equipped with cameras and LiDAR sensors, captured detailed facial geometry at close range, sufficient for facial recognition. One lawsuit, filed against Coco Robotics, details an incident where a customer had to stand within a meter of a delivery robot to enter a PIN code, while a remote pilot monitored the live video feed. The complaint against Coco Robotics alleges that the company fails to provide notice before scanning, identify specific purposes or retention periods for the data, obtain written consent, or publish a data destruction schedule.
Furthermore, the lawsuit against Coco Robotics claims that the company uses the collected data to train its AI, with alleged data-sharing partnerships including OpenAI. The plaintiffs argue that individuals scanned by these robots have no account with the company and no choice in whether they are served by a robot, making consent impossible. The complaint also points out that Coco Robotics has never stated it blurs, downsamples, or removes human faces or hands from its LiDAR data.
A similar complaint has been filed against Serve Robotics, which allegedly delivered an order to another customer. This lawsuit makes comparable claims regarding the collection and use of biometric data. Serve Robotics, which fulfills orders for services like Uber Eats and Grubhub, is also accused of licensing video and LiDAR data to third parties for model training, as indicated in its own SEC filings. Unlike the complaint against Coco, this suit notes that Serve robots also collect audio data.
Both Coco Robotics and Serve Robotics have denied the allegations. Coco Robotics stated that it has not collected biometric data in Chicago, that the suit misunderstands their technology, and that the shared data is purely navigational. Serve Robotics maintains that its robot systems are not designed to identify individuals or create biometric profiles. The central dispute in these lawsuits revolves around whether the data captured by the robots qualifies as biometric information under BIPA.
Illinois' BIPA law grants individuals the right to sue companies for the unlawful collection and use of their biometric data. Under this act, companies must inform individuals in writing about the type of biometric information being collected, its intended use, and its retention period. They are also required to obtain written consent, publish a data destruction schedule, and refrain from selling or profiting from the data.
These legal actions follow growing public concern in Chicago regarding delivery robots. Residents have previously petitioned against them, citing issues such as collisions, interference with emergency vehicles, and general surveillance worries. Over 4,550 Chicagoans have reportedly signed such a petition. Both lawsuits were initiated by the same law firm, Almeida Law Group, with each seeking $1,000 per class member for negligent violations or $5,000 for intentional or reckless ones, potentially impacting thousands of individuals.
The core of these lawsuits hinges on the interpretation of "biometric identifiers" under Illinois law and whether the data collected by these autonomous delivery robots constitutes such information. As the legal process unfolds, it could set a precedent for the privacy implications of increasingly common robotic technologies operating in public spaces.