Amazon is facing a class action lawsuit in federal court over claims that its Ring doorbell cameras used facial recognition technology to scan, identify, and store people’s faces without their consent.The complaint was filed on June 1 by Virginia resident Charles Sigwalt in federal court in Seattle, where Amazon has... Read More » Apple Hit With Illinois Biometric Privacy Suit Over Eye Scans Apple Inc. is facing a proposed class action in federal court in Illinois over claims that its Face ID system secretly captures detailed scans of users' irises and retinas without the written consent required under the state's biometric privacy law. The complaint, filed Saturday, was brought by Samantha Mettler, an Illinois resident who says her eye data was gathered both when she set up Face ID and later through the feature's ongoing attention-tracking function. According to the filing, Apple is upfront with customers that it captures facial geometry to power its facial recognition system. Still, the company never separately discloses that the same process also involves scanning the eyes at a much more granular level. Mettler's attorneys argue that obtaining permission to collect one category of biometric data does not automatically extend to a different type of data gathered through the same feature. Central to the suit is the claim that Face ID cannot even be activated unless the device's camera detects the user's eyes, a requirement the complaint says exists specifically so the system can verify a person is actually looking at the phone. That verification step, the lawsuit contends, depends on capturing iris or retinal information, whether or not the person ever finishes enrolling in facial recognition. The suit further alleges this scanning continues in the background through what Apple calls attention-aware features, which dim the screen when a user looks away or quiet notifications