June 21 2021- 6:30 p.m.
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.
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.
The system also records collects customers’ voiceprints.
As reported in court filings, Carpenter drove through the pull-up window early last year, and rather than a human operator, his order was taken by the company’s new artificial intelligence-based voice assistance program, Apprente.
According to Shannon’s suit, the chain maintains it collects customers’ voiceprints ‘to be able to correctly interpret customer orders and identify repeat customers to provide a tailored experience,’ Restaurant Business Online reported.
Carpenter, whose lawsuit was moved to federal court this month, is seeking class status, meaning that if McDonald’s is found guilty, it will have to pay out to everyone who has ever used the AI drive-thrus.
‘McDonald’s AI voice assistant goes beyond real-time voiceprint analysis and recognition and also incorporates ‘machine-learning routines’ that utilize voice recognition in combination with license plate scanning technology to identify unique customers regardless of which location they visit and present them with certain menu items based on their past visits.’
‘McDonald’s fails to inform its customers that their voiceprint biometrics are being collected when they interact with the Al voice assistant or obtain any consent from them to do so,’ the lawsuit alleges. ‘Nor does McDonald’s have a publicly available data retention policy that discloses what McDonald’s does with the voiceprint biometric data it obtains or how long it is stored for.’
In a statement to DailyMail.com, McDonald’s said Carpenter’s suit ‘demonstrates a misrepresentation of the technology and its purpose.’
It maintains the technology doesn’t store any identifying voiceprint or feature or try to compare a current orderer to a previous customer.
“This technology was specifically developed and deployed in a way that does not identify any customers,’ the company said, adding that it intends to defend against the allegations in court.
The fast-food chain began testing voice-recognition software last year at 10 locations in and around Chicago. But the system hasn’t gone off without a hitch, with close to one in five orders made with Apprente ultimately needing a human worker to step in.
