Coinbase is facing a class-action lawsuit that alleges that the company violated biometric privacy laws in Illinois through its collection and storage of customer fingerprints and facial templates.
Coinbase Accused Of Privacy Violations In Biometric Collection
Coinbase is being sued in a class-action lawsuit filed in a California District Court on May 1.
The lawsuit claims that Coinbase violated Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting and storing customer fingerprints and facial templates without obtaining proper consent and failing to provide information about the collection, storage, and destruction of biometric data.
To perform KYC checks, Coinbase requires customers to upload pictures of a valid ID and a self-portrait, which are used to create a biometric template of the user’s face. The suit alleges that thousands of facial and fingerprint biometric templates from Illinois residents were illegally collected and stored by Coinbase.
Furthermore, the lawsuit argues that biometric authentication, such as face or fingerprint scans, used on Coinbase’s mobile app for account logins expose users to privacy risks. The suit seeks damages of $5,000 per intentional BIPA violation or $1,000 if violations were not willful and asks for Coinbase to pay attorneys’ fees and court costs for the class action.
The lawsuit highlights that if Coinbase’s database is breached, it could lead to identity theft as users have no way to prevent it.
About Coinbase
Coinbase is a digital currency exchange that allows users to buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. It was founded in 2012 in San Francisco, California, and has grown to become one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, with millions of users.
The platform supports over 200 cryptocurrencies and has expanded its services to include a wallet for storing cryptocurrencies, a mobile app for trading on the go, and institutional-grade custody services for large-scale investors.
Coinbase has also gone public, becoming the first major cryptocurrency exchange to do so, and is listed on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol COIN.
However, it is currently facing legal challenges related to the collection and storage of customer biometric data, as well as regulatory scrutiny in various jurisdictions around the world.
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