McDonald's being sued in Illinois for collecting customer's biometric data at AI-powered drive-thru

McDonald's is being sued for recording customers' biometric data at its new artificially intelligent-powered drive-thru windows without getting their consent. In court filings, Shannon Carpenter, a customer at a McDonald's in Lombard, Illinois, claims the system violates Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act, or BIPA, by not getting his approval before using voice-recognition technology to take his order. BIPA requires companies to inform customers their biometric information--including voiceprints, facial features, fingerprints and other unique physiological features--is being collected. Illinois is only one of a handful of states with biometric privacy laws, but they are considered the most stringent. A McDonald's customer in Chicago is suing the burger chain, claiming it records and stores users' voiceprints without their written consent, in violation of Illinois strict biometric privacy law In 2020, the fast-food chain began testing out using voice-recognition software in lieu of human servers at 10 locations in and around Chicago.