Coinbase faces lawsuit over alleged breaches of Illinois biometric privacy law

A group of Coinbase users from Illinois have filed a class-action lawsuit against the crypto exchange, alleging that its identity checks violate the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
Plaintiffs Scott Bernstein, Gina Greeder and James Lonergan claimed in the May 13 lawsuit filed in a federal court that Coinbase’s “wholesale collection” of faceprints for its Know Your Customer requirements violates BIPA, as they weren’t notified.
The group claimed Coinbase failed to notify users in writing of the collection, storage, or sharing of their biometric data and the purpose and retention schedule for their data.
“Coinbase does not publicly provide a retention schedule or guidelines for permanently destroying Plaintiffs’ biometric identifiers as specified by BIPA,” they alleged.
The complaint said Coinbase requires users to verify their identity by uploading a government-issued photo ID and a selfie, which is then sent to a third-party facial recognition software to scan and extract facial geometry.
This process captures biometric identifiers without users’ informed written consent, which the suit claimed violates BIPA.
Additionally, the group claimed Coinbase violated the law by sharing biometric data without users’ consent to third-party verification vendors such as Jumio, Onfido, Au10tix and Solaris.
“Coinbase ‘obtains’ biometric data in violation of [BIPA] because it explicitly directed the Third Party Verification Providers to use its software to verify and authenticate users, including Plaintiffs, and its software does so by collecting biometric data,” the complaint read.
The group claimed that more than 10,000 individuals have filed demands for arbitration over these issues with the American Arbitration Association, which Coinbase has allegedly refused to pay the required arbitration fees, causing them to be dismissed.
Related: Alabama drops staking lawsuit against Coinbase
The suit brings three claims of violating state biometric privacy laws and one for consumer fraud under the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
The group is seeking relief of $5,000 per willful or reckless violation found, $1,000 per negligent violation found, along with injunctive relief and litigation costs.
Coinbase has also recently been hit with at least six lawsuits over its May 15 disclosure that some of its customer support agents were bribed to leak users’ data.
Past BIPA violation suit sent to arbitration
In May 2023, a group of Coinbase users sued the exchange under similar accusations of BIPA violations.
A judge later allowed that lawsuit to pause pending arbitration and dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice on Feb. 3 after Coinbase and the group of users agreed to drop the action.
Magazine: Arthur Hayes $1M Bitcoin tip, altcoins ‘powerful rally’ looms: Hodler’s Digest
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 107,907.00
Ethereum (ETH) $ 2,522.16
Tether (USDT) $ 0.999869
XRP (XRP) $ 2.32
BNB (BNB) $ 656.63
Solana (SOL) $ 150.29
USDC (USDC) $ 0.999829
TRON (TRX) $ 0.286210
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.166806
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 2,521.77
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.579670
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 107,820.00
Hyperliquid (HYPE) $ 39.31
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 3,044.68
Sui (SUI) $ 2.86
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 491.28
Chainlink (LINK) $ 13.38
LEO Token (LEO) $ 9.04
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.251074
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 17.91
USDS (USDS) $ 0.999796
Toncoin (TON) $ 2.76
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 2,698.76
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000012
Hedera (HBAR) $ 0.159258
WETH (WETH) $ 2,518.96
Litecoin (LTC) $ 85.59
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 44.92
Binance Bridged USDT (BNB Smart Chain) (BSC-USD) $ 0.999658
Monero (XMR) $ 315.55
Coinbase Wrapped BTC (CBBTC) $ 107,898.00
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 0.999455
Polkadot (DOT) $ 3.38
Bitget Token (BGB) $ 4.28
Uniswap (UNI) $ 7.28
Aave (AAVE) $ 281.56
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000010
Dai (DAI) $ 0.999929
Pi Network (PI) $ 0.456380
Ethena Staked USDe (SUSDE) $ 1.18
OKB (OKB) $ 48.20
Bittensor (TAO) $ 320.50
Aptos (APT) $ 4.43
BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) $ 1.00
Jito Staked SOL (JITOSOL) $ 182.48
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 2.14
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 4.76
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.081087
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 16.45
Ondo (ONDO) $ 0.777903
sUSDS (SUSDS) $ 1.06
USD1 (USD1) $ 0.999996
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.075198
Fasttoken (FTN) $ 4.44
Mantle (MNT) $ 0.565044
Gate (GT) $ 15.48
Cosmos Hub (ATOM) $ 4.03
VeChain (VET) $ 0.020454
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 0.663566
Official Trump (TRUMP) $ 8.60
Bonk (BONK) $ 0.000022
Sky (SKY) $ 0.077785
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.183646
Lombard Staked BTC (LBTC) $ 107,800.00
Ethena (ENA) $ 0.256566
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.328169
Render (RENDER) $ 3.14
Filecoin (FIL) $ 2.26
Binance-Peg WETH (WETH) $ 2,519.58
Jupiter Perpetuals Liquidity Provider Token (JLP) $ 4.48
Algorand (ALGO) $ 0.174072
Worldcoin (WLD) $ 0.867490
USDtb (USDTB) $ 0.999923
First Digital USD (FDUSD) $ 0.996036
Sei (SEI) $ 0.253924
Binance Staked SOL (BNSOL) $ 159.29
KuCoin (KCS) $ 10.97
USDT0 (USDT0) $ 1.00
Jupiter (JUP) $ 0.437048
NEXO (NEXO) $ 1.21
Kelp DAO Restaked ETH (RSETH) $ 2,642.94
SPX6900 (SPX) $ 1.27
Rocket Pool ETH (RETH) $ 2,870.34
Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) $ 1.17
Flare (FLR) $ 0.016373
Celestia (TIA) $ 1.57
Polygon Bridged USDT (Polygon) (USDT) $ 0.999918
XDC Network (XDC) $ 0.065227
Injective (INJ) $ 10.38
Binance Bridged USDC (BNB Smart Chain) (USDC) $ 0.999494
Stacks (STX) $ 0.646587
Sonic (S) $ 0.306663
Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) $ 1.48
Mantle Staked Ether (METH) $ 2,693.81
SyrupUSDC (SYRUPUSDC) $ 1.11
StakeWise Staked ETH (OSETH) $ 2,648.92
Optimism (OP) $ 0.538552
PAX Gold (PAXG) $ 3,332.64
Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) $ 0.014550
Solv Protocol BTC (SOLVBTC) $ 107,777.00