Jumio, an online ID processing vendor, has been accused of allegedly violating an Illinois biometrics privacy law in a class action lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court.
The plaintiff, Jacob Czyszczon, alleges that Jumio unlawfully collected, stored, and used his sensitive biometric data without consent. The lawsuit was filed March 18 in federal court in San Jose.
The suit details that Czyszczon had his biometric information processed by Jumio as part of the process of signing up for a Phemex account. As part of the sign-up process, he was asked to engage in the identity verification process called "Know Your Customer" by uploading a picture of a valid state-issued identification and a real-time portrait of his face.
Jumio then allegedly created a biometric template of Czyszczon's face and compared it to the photograph on the identification document to confirm whether they matched.
The lawsuit is one of thousands filed in California, Illinois and elsewhere under the stringent Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
And the lawsuit could potentially carry a massive price tag.
The law permits plaintiffs to demand damages of $1,000-$5,000 per violation. The Illinois Supreme Court has interpreted the BIPA law to define individual violations as each time a user's biometrics are scanned over a period of the preceding five years, not just the first time.
The lawsuit also marks yet another filed against Jumio under the BIPA law.
Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Leah M. Beligan and Jerusalem F. Beligan, of the Beligan Law Group, of Newport Beach; James L. Simon, of Simon Law, of Chagrin Falls, Ohio; and Michael L. Fradin, of Fradin Law, of Skokie, Illinois.