Class Action Claims McDonald’s Collected Ill. Drive-Through Customers’ Voiceprints Without Consent

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A proposed class action lawsuit claims McDonald’s Corporation has violated an Illinois privacy law by collecting drive-through customers’ voiceprints without first providing proper disclosures or obtaining consent to do so.

According to the 16-page case, McDonald’s use of an artificial intelligence voice assistant at locations in Illinois to interpret customers’ orders and identify repeat customers oversteps the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Per the case, McDonald’s has failed to comply with BIPA regulations that require private entities to notify residents that their biometrics, i.e., voiceprints, are being collected and obtain their consent to do so.

The lawsuit says McDonald’s in 2019 purchased technology company Apprente to implement an AI voice assistant at its restaurants to streamline operations and cut down on staff. According to the suit, Apprente’s voice assistant uses “speech-to-meaning” technology to analyze speech signals and determine a customer’s request. In the process, the technology collects customers’ voiceprint biometrics “to determine such unique features of the customer’s voice as pitch, volume, duration, as well as to obtain identifying information such as the customer’s age, gender, accent, nationality, and national origin,” the lawsuit relays.

Further, McDonald’s AI technology, the suit says, “goes beyond real-time voiceprint analysis and recognition” and utilizes “machine-learning routines” to identify unique customers through their voiceprints and license plates in order to present them with certain menu items based on past visits.

The lawsuit claims, however, that McDonald’s has implemented its AI technology at Illinois locations without informing customers that their voiceprint biometrics are being collected, or obtaining their consent to do so. McDonald’s has also failed to publish a data retention policy and guidelines specifying “what McDonald’s does with the voiceprint biometric data it obtains or how long it is stored for”—another requirement under the BIPA, according to the case.

The suit, which was recently removed from Cook County, Illinois Circuit Court to the state’s Northern District Court, looks to represent anyone whose voiceprint biometrics were collected, captured, stored, transmitted, disseminated or otherwise used by or on behalf of McDonald’s Corporation in Illinois at any time within the applicable statute of limitations period and for whom the defendant has no written record of consent to do so.

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