A group of people are trying to sue Coinbase together because they believe the company broke the rules on privacy in Illinois. They say that Coinbase took their fingerprints and facial scans and kept them without their permission.
A lawsuit that many people want to join says that Coinbase broke the law in Illinois when it collected and stored users’ fingerprints and facial patterns without permission.
On May 1st, someone who uses Coinbase filed a document in a California District Court saying that the company is breaking the law in Illinois. They say that asking customers to take pictures of their ID and a photo of themselves so the company can check who they are is against some parts of a law called the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
A person who uses Coinbase wrote something down on May 1st and sent it to a court in California. They said that Coinbase is breaking a law in Illinois. The person thinks that asking customers to take pictures of their ID and a picture of themselves so the company can check who they are is not allowed under a law called the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
![](https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2023-05/b3a322a1-affc-46e2-93d7-866823e9d518.png)
Coinbase user Michael Massel filed the suit on May 1, demanding a jury trial. Source:Â CourtListener
Coinbase takes a picture of a person’s face and then turns it into a type of code called a “biometric template.” This lets Coinbase compare the picture of the person’s face to the one on their ID to make sure they match. Other exchanges do similar things.
The people suing Coinbase say that the company has taken and saved many detailed pictures of the faces and fingerprints of thousands of people who live in Illinois. They say that Coinbase did not have permission to do this.
The people who are suing Coinbase say that the company uses biometric authentication, like taking a person’s fingerprint or scanning their face, to make sure it is really them logging into the Coinbase app on their phone.