AWS 'Expressly Denies' It Violated Ill. BIPA Law, in Notice of Removal

Amazon Web Services (AWS) “expressly denies” it violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), it said in a notice of removal (docket 1:22-cv-06779) Friday in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago. AWS intends to “defend this matter vigorously,” it said.

In the state court putative class action filed Sept. 1, plaintiff Cynthia Redd alleged Wonolo, an app-based job placement company, used AWS’ cloud-based software service, Rekognition, to verify the identities of Wonolo users who interacted with its app. By providing the Rekognition service to Wonolo, AWS violated BIPA by possessing the plaintiff’s biometric data without developing and adhering to a publicly available retention and deletion schedule, said the complaint.

AWS didn’t obtain informed written consent and release from individuals before acquiring their biometric data, in violation of BIPA mandates, the complaint said. It alleged AWS profited from biometric identifiers or data obtained through hosting Wonolo’s app to enhance its own machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies. The complaint also alleged AWS disclosed Redd’s biometric data without her consent.

Redd’s putative class action, exceeding 50 individuals, seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, plus statutory damages. For each claim, Redd is seeking statutory damages of $5,000 for each intentional and/or reckless violation of the BIPA or statutory damages for each negligent violation.

AWS said the action is removable under the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, where the aggregate number of members in the proposed class is 100 or more, the amount in controversy exceeds $5 million and any member of a class of plaintiffs is a citizen of a state different from a defendant.

The plaintiff’s putative class encompasses any Illinois resident who used Wonolo’s platform to apply for temporary jobs in multiple industries that included retail, delivery services, administrative tasks, general laborers and event staffing, among others, AWS’ notice of removal said. Between Jan. 1, 2020, and May 31, 2021, more than 1,060 individuals who registered to use the Wonolo app in Illinois completed at least one job, creating a potential class of at least 1,060 members, AWS said.

Redd signed up to use the Wonolo app in May 2020 and was required to scan her facial geometry so that AWS and Wonolo could track her time worked, her complaint said.