Schlichter Bogard’s Data Privacy Lawsuit Against Amazon Web Services and Pindrop Featured in Gizmodo

The class action lawsuit filed by Schlichter Bogard & Denton alleges that Defendants collected and stored sensitive voiceprint data without Plaintiffs’ knowledge or consent in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”).

As reported by Gizmodo, at the center of the controversy is Amazon Connect, a suite of call-center software that Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) began licensing in 2017. According to the lawsuit, Pindrop, a company with which AWS partners to offer call center services, specialized in creating “voiceprints” to identify and “authenticate” callers by vocal quirks like the cadence of their voice.

Defendants violated BIPA, the lawsuit alleges, by collecting callers’ sensitive biometric voice data without obtaining their consent, storing it on servers, and failing to publicly disclose data retention policies.

The lawsuit further alleges that Pindrop profited off the collection and use of callers’ biometric information without their consent. “Pindrop does not tell Plaintiffs it is profiting from its harvesting of their biological information, nor does it obtain their consent. Even if it did obtain consent—though it did not—Pindrop’s practice of profiting from Plaintiffs’ biometric data is a BIPA violation,” the lawsuit claims.

As Schlichter Bogard & Denton partner Andrew Schlichter told Gizmodo, “We believe that the law was violated, and look forward to bringing the claims to trial before a jury.”