Moomoo Technologies Inc., the operator of the online financial trading app Moomoo, is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly violating Illinois' stringent biometrics privacy law. The plaintiff, Christine Mouser, accuses the company of unlawfully collecting, storing, and using users' facial geometry during the ID verification process when registering for the app.
According to the lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court on Feb. 2, Mouser claims that this practice is a violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), which allegedly requires companies to inform users in writing if they are collecting or storing biometric identifiers or information. It also allegedly mandates that companies disclose the specific purpose and length of term for which such data is being collected and used.
The plaintiff alleges that Moomoo did not comply with these requirements.
The lawsuit seeks potentially huge damages under BIPA for these supposed violations. The law permits plaintiffs to demand damages of $1,000-$5,000 per violation. The Illinois Supreme Court has interpreted the BIPA law to define individual violations as each time a user's biometrics are scanned over a period of the preceding five years, not just the first time.
The plaintiffs seek to expand the lawsuit to include every Illinois resident who held a Moomoo account in the past five years.
The lawsuit does not estimate how many people could be included in the class action, saying only they believe it is more than 1,000.
Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Michael L. Fradin, of Skokie; and James L. Simon, of Independence, Ohio.