Study Aids
Case Briefs Overview
Casebooks
Case Briefs
V

Vance v. Amazon.com Inc.

534 F. Supp. 3d 1314 (W.D. Wash. 2021)

From our private database of 46,500+ case briefs, written and edited by humans—never with AI.

Vance v. Amazon.com Inc.

United States District Court for the Western District of Washington
534 F. Supp. 3d 1314 (W.D. Wash. 2021)

Facts

Flickr was a popular photo-sharing website owned by Yahoo!. Without users’ knowledge, Yahoo! compiled millions of posted photos into a dataset and made the dataset publicly available to parties developing facial-recognition technology. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) used the Flickr dataset to create a new dataset containing facial scans from the underlying images. Amazon.com Inc. (Amazon) (defendant) then obtained that dataset and used it to improve its own facial recognition technology, Amazon Rekognition, which was incorporated into multiple Amazon products, including Amazon’s photo platform, smart-home systems, and Alexa virtual-assistant platform. Amazon also marketed Rekognition to law-enforcement agencies to facilitate their monitoring activities. Illinois residents Steven Vance and Tim Janecyk (plaintiffs) were two Flickr users whose uploaded photos were included in the dataset. Vance and Janecyk sued Amazon, arguing that Amazon violated Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by profiting from their biometric information. Amazon moved to dismiss the suit for failure to state a viable claim, arguing that Amazon did not violate BIPA because it did not directly provide biometric data to third parties.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Robart, J.)

Dissent (Lucero, J.)

What to do next…

  1. Unlock this case brief with a free (no-commitment) trial membership of Quimbee.

    You’ll be in good company: Quimbee is one of the most widely used and trusted sites for law students, serving more than 832,000 law students since 2011. Some law schools even subscribe directly to Quimbee for all their law students.

    Unlock this case briefRead our student testimonials

  2. Learn more about Quimbee’s unique (and proven) approach to achieving great grades at law school.

    Quimbee is a company hell-bent on one thing: helping you get an “A” in every course you take in law school, so you can graduate at the top of your class and get a high-paying law job. We’re not just a study aid for law students; we’re the study aid for law students.

    Learn about our approachRead more about Quimbee

Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:

  • Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
  • The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
  • Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
  • Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.

Access this case brief for FREE

With a 7-day free trial membership
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
  • Reliable - written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students
  • The right length and amount of information - includes the facts, issue, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents
  • Access in your class - works on your mobile and tablet
  • 46,500 briefs - keyed to 994 casebooks
  • Uniform format for every case brief
  • Written in plain English - not in legalese and not just repeating the court's language
  • Massive library of related video lessons - and practice questions
  • Top-notch customer support

Access this case brief for FREE

With a 7-day free trial membership

Casebooks

Privacy Law