Kashkeesh v. Microsoft Corp.

Kashkeesh v. Microsoft Corp.

Opinion

Memorandum Opinion and Order

Emad Kashkeesh and Michael Komorski brought this putative class action in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, against Microsoft Corporation, alleging violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act ("BIPA"), 740 ILCS 14/1 et seq. Doc. 1-1. Microsoft removed the suit to federal court, Doc. 1, and Plaintiffs move to remand two of their claims back to state court, Doc. 36. The motion is granted.

Background

Plaintiffs are former Uber drivers who worked primarily in Chicago. Doc. 28 at ¶¶ 32, 38. Upon registering as Uber drivers, each was required to submit his name, vehicle information, driver's license, and a profile picture to Uber through [*2]  its mobile application. Id. ¶¶ 23, 32, 38. To gain access to Uber's platform and commence his driving duties, each had to photograph his face in real time through Uber's "Real Time ID Check" security feature. Id. at ¶¶ 33, 39. Unbeknownst to Plaintiffs, their pictures were transferred to Microsoft's Face Application Programming Interface ("Face API"), which is integrated into Uber's phone application as a security feature. Id. at ¶¶ 23-25. Microsoft's Face API collected and analyzed Plaintiffs' facial biometrics to create a "geographic template" that it compared to the geographic template from the original profile picture to verify their identities. Id. at ¶¶ 25-26, 34, 40.

Microsoft never obtained Plaintiffs' written consent to capture, store, or disseminate their facial biometrics. Id. at ¶¶ 28, 35, 41. Microsoft also failed to make a publicly available policy regarding retention and deletion of their biometric information, and it profited from receiving that information. Id. at ¶¶ 29-30, 36, 42.

Discussion

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