Use Of Biometric Information As A Basis For Civil Liability

Law360, New York (May 20, 2015, 10:14 AM EDT) -- The use of biometric recognition technologies by businesses creates potential legal liability for alleged misuse of that information. Biometric information refers to specific biological characteristics that can be used to automatically recognize a person, such as fingerprints, retina scans, voiceprints, hand scans and facial recognition scans. Historically, biometric information (namely, fingerprints) has been used primarily in the law enforcement context. But as technology has progressed, biometric information is increasingly entering the commercial marketplace. Apple Inc.'s new iPhone 6 — of which there are already over 100 million on the market — uses fingerprint authentication technology to unlock the phone and to confirm payment for certain purchases, some banks have experimented with using biometric identification at ATM machines, and Facebook uses facial recognition as part of its "Photo Tag Suggest" function, although they collect biometric information only indirectly through photo analysis....

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