Serve, Coco Delivery Robots Unlawfully Capture Biometric Scans in Chicago, Class Action Lawsuits Claim

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Serve Robotics Inc. and Coco Robotics face proposed class action lawsuits that allege the companies’ delivery robots in Chicago unlawfully capture face and hand scans and recordings of people around them without notice, consent, or posted data retention policies.

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The class action lawsuits allege that although Serve and Coco have deployed fleets of camera- and LiDAR-equipped delivery robots throughout Chicago to fulfill orders from DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber Eats, and other food delivery platforms, the robots capture, store and transmit scans of individuals’ faces and hands without obtaining prior written consent or providing requisite data-retention disclosures, in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).

Per the suits, scans of hand or facial geometry are considered biometric identifiers under the BIPA, which requires entities that collect biometric information to inform consumers in writing, disclose the purpose and length of time for which the data will be kept, obtain a written release, and publish a schedule for the retention and destruction of the biometric information.

Furthermore, the lawsuits point out that courts have “consistently” held that scans of facial geometry derived from or captured with a photo or video are in fact biometric identifiers.

The lawsuits claim that Serve and Coco collect facial geometry and hand scans from anyone in proximity to the delivery robots—including those who simply cross their paths—and transmit the sensitive biometric information to third parties without notice, written consent, or the publication of a data-retention and destruction policy.

"The issue with the use of these robots for delivery purposes is that they are designed to scan the faces, hands and bodies of every person in their orbit as they navigate the streets of Chicago," the complaints say.

The cases claim that the robots’ sensors capture the three-dimensional geometry of a face—including the positions and proportions of the eyes, nose, mouth, cheekbones and jaw—from which a numerical template known as a faceprint, which is unique to each individual and cannot be changed, can then be generated.

To open a delivery robot, an individual must stand directly in front of a robot’s forward-facing camera and sensors, which capture close-range measurements and recordings of their face and hands, the cases say.

The complaints assert that the defendants hold information about the consumer’s name, delivery address, contact information, and order records transmitted by the companies’ third-party delivery partners, meaning each face and hand scan is associated with an identified individual.

“Serve does not blur, mask or otherwise anonymize the faces or bodies of the people its robots record before storing, using or licensing the footage,” the Serve lawsuit conveys. 

Importantly, the Coco BIPA lawsuit alleges that the company is aware that its delivery robots record identifiable people yet has not responded to consumers’ privacy concerns or complied with BIPA requirements. The case charges that Coco has instead continued to expand its operations in Chicago, train AI models on the footage, and share the collected information with OpenAI.  

The Serve Robotics and Coco Robotics class action lawsuits look to cover:

• All individuals who, at any time through the date of class certification, received an order placed through DoorDash, Uber Eats or any other third-party platform that was delivered by a Coco robot in Illinois and who were recorded by that robot’s cameras or LiDAR sensor while in the state; and
• All individuals who, at any time through the date of class certification, received an order placed through Uber Eats, Grubhub or any other third-party platform that was delivered by a Serve robot in Illinois and who were recorded by that robot’s cameras or LiDAR sensor while in the state.

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