Amazon, Microsoft Privacy Suits Get Mixed Ruling on Data Access

Microsoft Corp. will face narrower claims than Amazon.com Inc. in related lawsuits alleging the companies violated Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act, after the Western District of Washington concluded the companies’ alleged handling of protected data differed significantly.

Microsoft used biometric data to “improve its facial recognition products and technologies,” while Amazon’s products allow “users to match new images of faces with existing, known facial images ‘based on their visual geometry,” according to the lawsuits.

While the allegations against Amazon “support the inference that the biometric data is itself” incorporated into its products and accessible by its customers, the allegations against ...