American Airlines Skirts Biometric Claims Over Customer Hotline

American Airlines escaped privacy claims alleging its customer service hotline collects biometric data without permission, as a federal judge in Illinois ruled that the claims are preempted by a federal law that aims to deregulate the airline industry.

Alex Kislov and Niko Hearn brought the proposed class action in 2017, alleging that the airline’s voice response software collected, analyzed, and stored “callers’ actual voiceprints” without written consent, in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.

American says it uses information collected from the calls to anticipate reasons for future calls, personalize the experience, and shorten hold times.

Judge Rebecca ...