Walmart faces lawsuit over alleged secret voiceprint collection in Illinois

As reported by Biometric Update, a proposed class action lawsuit has been filed against Walmart in Illinois, alleging the retail giant secretly converted customers' telephone calls into biometric voiceprints using AI without obtaining the required written consent under state law.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, claims Walmart records calls to its stores, extracts vocal characteristics, and creates mathematical templates to identify callers. Plaintiffs allege that an automated message stating calls may be recorded for business purposes, including fraud prevention, is insufficient as it does not disclose the creation and storage of voiceprints, their retention period, or potential third-party sharing. The complaint asserts that Walmart's AI system records audio, isolates speaker characteristics, and analyzes physical and behavioral identifiers like pitch, cadence, and tone to build unique voice templates. It also alleges the system monitors speech for emotional tracking.

Walmart's privacy notice does list voiceprints among potentially collected biometric information, but the plaintiffs argue this does not confirm all recorded calls are used for voiceprint creation. The suit seeks damages and an injunction for alleged violations of Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), which mandates written notice and consent before collecting biometric data and prohibits profiting from or disclosing such information without consent.

Source: Biometric Update