McDonald's AI drive-thru bot accused of breaking biometrics privacy law
- Reference: 1623369429
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/06/10/mcdonalds_ai_lawsuit/
- Source link:
Like so many giant corporations, McDonald’s has turned to AI technology to use computers in place of people. In 2019, it announced it had [1]snapped up a voice-recognition company in Silicon Valley, previously known as Apprente and now McD Tech Labs, to build a voice-controlled chatbot for its drive-thrus.
Earlier this month, McDonald’s said ten of its restaurants in Chicago, Illinois, are testing this chatbot, and it may permanently replace human workers. As you'd expect, you yell your order at the system from your car, and it takes care of it. The software [2]apparently has an 85 per cent accuracy rate.
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Although the automated service may be convenient for the greasy-grub giant, Shannon Carpenter, a resident of Illinois, claims McDonald’s is breaking the law. The state has some of the strictest data privacy laws; its [4]Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) states: “No private entity may collect, capture, purchase, receive through trade, or otherwise obtain a person's or a customer's biometric identifier or biometric information.” unless it receives written consent.
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Carpenter [7]sued [PDF] McDonald’s in April on behalf of himself and all other affected residents of Illinois. He claimed the fast-chow biz has broken BIPA by not obtaining written consent from its customers to collect and process their voice data, nor has it explained in its privacy policy how or if the data is stored or deleted. His lawsuit also stated that McDonald's has been experimenting with AI software taking orders at its drive thrus since last year.
“Plaintiff, like the other class members, to this day does not know the whereabouts of his voiceprint biometrics which defendant obtained,” Carpenter's lawsuit stated. Under the BIPA, people can receive up to $5,000 in damages from private entities for each violation committed “intentionally or recklessly,” or $1,000 if each violation was from negligence instead.
[8]Do you want fr-AI-s with that appy-meal? McDonald's gobbles machine-learning biz for human-free Drive Thrus
[9]Apple sued in nightmare case involving teen wrongly accused of shoplifting, driver's permit used by impostor, and unreliable facial-rec tech
[10]US Homeland Security sued for 'stonewalling' over use of Clearview facial recognition
[11]TikTok to cough up $92m to settle data privacy sueballs over harvesting too much data
The sueball also claimed the machine-learning software built by McD Tech Labs doesn’t just transcribe speech into text, it processes audio samples to glean all sorts of personal information to predict a customer’s “age, gender, accent, nationality, and national origin.”
Given just how many go to McDonald’s, the lawsuit could get expensive for the corporation. “Plaintiff’s estimate that the proposed class consists of 'thousands of members' renders the purported damages well in excess of the $5,000,000 threshold, even before potential attorneys’ fees,” the paperwork stated.
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The Register has asked McDonald’s for comment. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/11/mcdonalds_ai_chatbots/
[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/02/mcdonalds-tests-automated-drive-thru-ordering-at-10-chicago-restaurants.html
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YMLf5W6UusJcNVIw8@FowgAAABQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=3004&ChapterID=57
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YMLf5W6UusJcNVIw8@FowgAAABQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YMLf5W6UusJcNVIw8@FowgAAABQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/06/10/carpenter_vs_mcdonalds_lawsuit.pdf
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/11/mcdonalds_ai_chatbots/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/29/apple_sis_lawsuit/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/14/clearview_us_lawsuit/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/27/tiktok_lawsuit_settlement/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YMLf5W6UusJcNVIw8@FowgAAABQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: McSwag
A friend of mine once remarked that the Hamburgler had the foulest mouth of all the various fast food mascots. I asked what made her think so & she replied as follows:
Have you ever seen the Hamburgler eat? I haven't. Not in the decades I've seen him in commercials. So here you have a guy that's starving & trying to get himself some food. Every time he's nearly got his hands on some, a literal big idiot clown comes up & steals it back. What does the Hamburgler say in such moments? "RobbleRobble!" must be his version of something so foul that the tv censers can't express it in any other way.
I thought about it a moment & then had to agree with her. I've never seen him eat anything, that asshole clown always steals his meal, & the victim screams "RobbleRobble!" in anguish.
My son was still in his car seat/baby carrier at the time, and I'd often teach him new words/phrases while we were on the public bus. One day not long after her bringing this to my attention, I taught my son to say "RobbleRobble" instead of any other naughty word he might be tempted to say. An older lady was watching my son & I interacting when someone else on the bus said something rude. My son burbled "RobbleRobble!" & I started laughing. The old lady looked at me funny so I explained it to her. Then she started laughing, too. By the time it was my stop & I collected my son to exit, we had most of the other passengers saying "RobbleRobble" as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
And how does this relate to IT? Simple. Take a guess what I tended to say when something went SNAFU. Now imagine the looks on coworkers' faces upon hearing such a "curse". And the laughter they gave once explained. And the frequency such a phrase would get tossed around the office thereafter.
Best of all, it was something you could openly say to someone to their face & *nobody* could accuse you of being foul mouthed or impolite. I mean, what are you going to tell the person to whom you are filing a complaint: "Yeah, your employee said to have a nice day & go ''RobbleRobble''."? You'd get laughed right out the door...
“the greasy-grub giant”
Nice work El Reg
Oh the Humanity
Removing the personal touch from McDonalds, what is the world coming to?
I was replaying the "Dude, Where's my car" chinese drive through scene whilst reading the article. Go in for a coffee and exit with 2 family boxes, 5 sundaes, 10 large cokes, a dozen boxes of cookies and a small packet of apple slices.
Who's hungry, then?
Hmmm, American lawyers. 'The Law' used to provide protection against real injustice; now it seems to be more a source of enrichment for Certain People.
McSwag
I knew The Hamburglar never really went away.