Match Group, the parent company of dating app Hinge, is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly violating Illinois' biometrics privacy law. The lawsuit accuses Match Group of improperly scanning the faces of people who registered to use Hinge.
The lawsuit is one of three virtually identical claims filed by the same legal team against Match, accusing them over how they handled the so-called biometric information of those using their dating apps. Other apps targeted included Match's BLK and Chispa apps.
According to the complaint, as part of signing up or gaining access to a Hinge account, users are asked to upload photos of themselves to allow the collection of their facial geometry to verify their identities. This feature verifies that uploaded photos accurately portray the user and are not false identification.
The process involves a "Liveness Check" video and a "3D Face Authentication" that scans and detects users' faces in their profile pictures and video. This creates a unique number or "template" using facial geometry scanning software.
The lawsuit alleges that these facial geometry scans are unique, permanent biometric identifiers associated with each user that cannot be changed or replaced if stolen or compromised.
The lawsuit claims Match allegedly conducted the scans without first obtaining consent from users and without first providing users with notices about how the face geometry scans would be stored, shared, used and destroyed.
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 used the Hinge app in the past five years.
The lawsuit does not estimate how many people could be included in the class action.
Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Michael L. Fradin, of Skokie; and James L. Simon, of Independence, Ohio.