Apple wins U.S. biometric case over customer Touch ID and Face ID

The Illinois First District Appellate Court decided that iPhone maker Apple was not violating the state’s biometric laws with its Touch ID and Face ID features

iPhone maker Apple has won a case regarding its use of the Touch ID and Face ID features which let customers unlock their iPhones using their biometric data, according to Bloomberg Law and tech outlet Biometric Update.

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Late in 2022, the Illinois First District Appellate Court decided that Apple did not violate the state’s biometrics law, the Illinois Biometrics Information Privacy Act, or BIPA.

Apple’s win came after an appeals court ruling, which noted that customers chose to use the Touch ID/Face ID features and that Apple did not collect this data en masse.

If Apple had used the data for other purposes or stored it on external servers, Illinois’ BIPA law might have come into action. However, that was not the case. Furthermore, Apple users can lock and unlock their phones using options which do not involve submitting biometric data.

The proposed class action was filed by customer David Barnett in 2021.