Disney faces new lawsuit for its new face scanning tech
I know you probably have heard thus many times before, but it is important context for this story. Anyone can sue anyone else for anything in the United States of America. You do not need to prove a case - or even any shred of one - before you can file a lawsuit.
That said, a California woman is suing The Walt Disney Company - and seeking class action status - over Disneyland's new use of facial recognition at its entry gates.
Disneyland and Disney California Adventure have been using facial recognition at their front entrances for years. The recent change is that instead of having cast members take your photo to check against whenever you reenter the parks, the process is happening automatically. Disneyland has posted signs alerting fans of the change and maintains entry lanes for people who do not wish to use the new, automated facial recognition tech.
But that's not enough for the plaintiff, who is seeking a $5 million judgment against Disney. Her filing, detailed in the Orange County Register this week, claims that Disneyland does not adequately disclose its use of biometric technology. Nor does it require guests to opt into it rather than opt out.
I don't know, but it seems to me that walking into a scanning gate rather than a photo gate is an active opt-in. Disney has been capturing its guests on photo and video for generations. Thirty years ago, I sat in the tower position at Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and watched thousands of Disney guests on screen during my shifts.
The horse is out of the barn on the use of facial recognition tech in popular venues. Heck, the LA Clippers' new stadium does not even have traditional ticketing. It's all facial scanning and biometric tech. But if someone wants to sue Disney over this, that is their right. The case is Duffield v. The Walt Disney Company et al in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The Disneyland case reminds me of another lawsuit in the news this week. A college football player is suing to get his eligibility back after admitting that he placed bets on his team. One of the many claims that the player is making is that NCAA failed to support treatment for the player's gambling addiction. But the Americans With Disabilities Act explicitly excludes compulsive gambling from its covered disabilities, so I don't know how an ADA claim would work here. And clearly, college football - like any other sport - has a vested interest in its players not gambling on its games.
But, as I wrote before, you can sue anyone for anything. Which is good - because I don't want to live in a society where people do not have an opportunity to pursue justice through the courts for wrongs. But not everyone sued is some big corporation. And even big corporations do not have limitless resources to fight lawsuits. At some point, it would be nice if those who file suits that get tossed immediately faced additional penalties for wasting others' time, money, and effort.
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I'm totally with Robert here. I respect the ability for anyone to sue for any reason, but our court system does not have endless time to adjudicate everything under the sun, so litigants who bring frivolous complaints should be held to account and penalized. The big problem is that the bar to prove frivolousness is so high that it is rarely pursued, because it takes away even more time and resources from the court to litigate.