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COURTS✒ EDITORIALABSURDITY:
Lowe’s hit with class action over collection of consumers’ voiceprints
Filed 1h ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk
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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
An Illinois class action accuses Lowe's of secretly capturing callers' voiceprints through its customer service lines and sharing that biometric data with third-party vendors, without notice or consent. Lead plaintiff Rosemarie Perkins says the retailer's privacy statement, last updated in March, mentions AI voice assistant technology but never discloses biometric collection or storage.
The suit invokes Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act, which requires written consent before collecting such data, and follows a nearly identical class action filed against Walmart just a month earlier. The complaint cites a 2023 FTC statement warning that voice biometrics carry unique risks, including that a compromised voiceprint, unlike a password, cannot simply be replaced.
The full dispatch is available from the source below.
✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK
Funny how the privacy statement finds room to brag about the AI assistant but somehow skips the part about turning your voice into a permanent file. A password you can change after a breach; your vocal cords you're stuck with for life, which is exactly why Illinois wrote a law about it. Two lawsuits in two months against two giant retailers suggests this wasn't an oversight so much as a business model nobody wanted written down.
