Lawsuit: Amazon Go Stores Unlawfully Tracked Customers’ Biometrics in NYC

A lawsuit filed against Amazon claims the company did not alert its New York City customers that they were being monitored by technology that tracks their bodies’ shapes and sizes as well as their palm prints.

Amazon failed to tell visitors to Amazon Go convenience stores that the technology was in use. A law enacted in NYC in 2021, requires businesses to post signs if they’re tracking customers’ biometric information, such as facial scans or fingerprints.

Amazon introduced its Go stores in 2018, promising that customers could walk in, purchase whatever products they wanted off the shelves and leave without checking out or interacting with another human being. The company monitors visitors’ purchases and automatically charges their accounts when they exit the store.

Related: See All Settlement Rebates Here

The lawsuit says that Amazon only recently put up signs informing New York customers of its use of biometric recognition technology, more than a year after the law went into effect. 

In order for Amazon to keep track of purchases that customers make at Amazon Go stores, it has to continuously monitor their bodies, the lawsuit says.

Eligible class members are all persons who on or after January 15, 2022 through the date of judgment in this action made a purchase from an Amazon Go store in the City of New York that did not post a sign at each customer entrance that complies with N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 22-1202(a).

You can see the lawsuit here.