Natasha Kohne, Kamran Salour Article on Biometric Data Litigation Published by Competition Journal

“Biometric Privacy Litigation: Is Unique Personally Identifying Information Obtained from a Photograph Biometric Information?,” an article by Akin Gump cybersecurity, privacy and data protection practice co-leader Natasha Kohne and counsel Kamran Salour, has been published by Competition, the journal of the Antitrust, UCL and Privacy Section of the State Bar of California.

The article discusses how the data from a photograph can be converted into a “faceprint,” analogous to a fingerprint in its uniqueness, and how these faceprints, amassed by social media giants such as Google and Facebook—Google has more than 2 trillion tags applied to its database of photos, for example—present emergent issues in biometric privacy. Among those identified by the authors are consent and data security as well as whether information derived from facial recognition technology constitutes biometric information.

In this context, the authors discuss the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), its origins and the obligations it imposes on individuals and companies; analyze federal courts’ interpretation of BIPA’s scope; review common jurisdictional and constitutional defenses to BIPA claims; explore proposed amendments to BIPA; and review “how the existing uncertain biometric legal landscape has taken the focus off of protecting biometric information and instead given savvy plaintiffs’ lawyers license to assert multi-million dollar class action suits…alleging BIPA violations.”

To read the full article, please click here.