In the most recent improvement, an Illinois decide has granted a movement to pause proceedings in a lawsuit towards US-based cryptocurrency trade Coinbase. This choice would droop additional actions within the crypto firm’s courtroom case involving alleged violations of the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
How Another Case Could Decide The Outcome Of Coinbase Lawsuit
According to an August 21 submitting within the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division, Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman accredited a movement submitted by Coinbase to remain a lawsuit accusing the trade of violating the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act. The movement requested the courtroom to attend for a ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on an analogous case.
The Court of Appeals case includes Nuance Communications and Charles Schwab, with the intricacies round supplying voice identification expertise forming the muse of the authorized battle. The choice from this explicit lawsuit may set precedent for a way BIPA impacts monetary service suppliers, together with cryptocurrency exchanges.
The courtroom doc learn:
[T]he Court finds that the keep would simplify the problems and streamline the trial […] scale back the burden of litigation on the Court and the events […] [and] wouldn’t unduly prejudice or tactically drawback Plaintiffs.
The lawsuit, filed in May 2025 by a gaggle of customers, accused Coinbase of the “wholesale assortment” of biometric knowledge for its Know Your Customer (KYC) necessities with out notifying the customers, thereby violating the Illinois legislation. The plaintiffs additionally alleged that the crypto firm inappropriately shared the faceprints with third-party verification suppliers.
Under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, personal companies or organizations can face damages of as much as $5,000 for every occasion of reckless or intentional violation of the legislation and $1,000 per negligent violation of the BIPA. The plaintiffs additionally sought aid to cowl their authorized prices.
Coinbase Under Pressure From Data Security Breach
Due to a separate incident, Coinbase has been underneath scrutiny over the safety of buyer knowledge. The crypto firm revealed in May {that a} group of buyer assist contractors in India accessed account knowledge for customers in trade for bribes.
While the client contractors had been finally dismissed, the people behind the information breach tried to extort $20 million in Bitcoin from Coinbase. Ultimately, this incident has put Coinbase underneath stress and referred to as into query its technique of dealing with private person knowledge.
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