Microsoft Allowed to Seal Children’s Biometric Privacy Documents

Microsoft Corp. won its bid to seal documents it filed in support of its opposition to the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification in a biometric privacy action after a Washington federal judge found keeping the information closed would protect children’s privacy.

Some images containing the faces of unnamed, non-party individuals that come from an International Business Machines Corp. dataset from which Microsoft allegedly developed facial recognition tools are also sealed, Judge James L. Robart wrote in an order filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Plaintiff Steven Vance sued Microsoft in July 2020, accusing ...