Verizon illegally collects customer voting data, class action lawsuit alleges

In Illinois, biometric data (such as fingerprints, voice, iris, face and more) can be used to identify an individual and therefore requires special protections. BIPA allows a business to use biometric data to identify and authenticate an individual, but the law requires businesses to provide certain disclosures and obtain written consent from customers before they can collect and store biometric data from their subscribers.

Verizon collects voice recordings for his Verizon Voice ID system, although the wireless carrier has failed to comply with BIPA requirements, according to the lawsuit. Customers must be informed in writing that biometrics would be collected or stored and how long the data would be retained. Verizon also failed to inform its customers about how their biometric data would be used and failed to obtain written consent from its customers.

The company is also pursuing another class action lawsuit alleging that the Verizon website is not fully accessible to blind and visually impaired consumers. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York, alleges that the nation’s largest wireless carrier violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The plaintiff in this case, Derek Pollitt, is legally blind and needs software to read his computer screen in order to use the Internet. Pollitt wanted to buy a new phone and visited the Verizon website he found through a Google search. After finding a device he wanted to buy, he was unable to do so due to “numerous accessibility issues,” the lawsuit says. The plaintiff points out that VerizonThe website has a completely visual interface and does not offer new technologies such as “alternative text, accessible forms, descriptive links, resizable text, and limited use of tables and JavaScript.”

The claimant states that because of the manner in which Verizon designed the website, a person with a visual impairment will need the assistance of a sighted person to access the content of the website.

The first lawsuit about VerizonThelton George Parker Jr., et al. v.’s alleged failure to obtain consent before capturing customers’ voting data is Thelton George Parker Jr., et al. Verizon Communications Inc., et al., Case No. 1:24-cv-08436, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. The second lawsuit concerns Verizon‘s alleged failure to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act is Derek Pollitt v. Verizon Communications Inc., case number 1:24-cv-06156, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.