Coinbase Sued for Harvesting Customer Face and Fingerprint Data
"The company’s collection and storage of this data exposes users to “serious and irreversible privacy risks,” such as identity theft, in the event of a data breach, the suit says."
- "Coinbase Inc. illegally collects face templates and fingerprints of its customers in violation of Illinois’ biometric privacy law, according to a proposed class-action lawsuit."
- "The cryptocurrency exchange harvests facial data from copies of government-issued IDs and selfies that users are required to upload when they sign up for an account."
- "Subsequently, Coinbase harvests fingerprint data when customers log into their accounts using the required fingerprint scanning technology, accord to the suit."
- The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act requires companies to obtain user consent before collection biometric data and also inform them how long the data will be kept.
- As reported, Coinbase has a dedicated surveillance product called Coinbase Intelligence, which is used for harvesting customer data and selling it to various financial institutions, businesses, governments and and law enforcement agencies.
