Claiming that the company’s faulty facial-recognition software linked him to a series of thefts from Apple Stores, an 18-year old New York teen has sued Apple for $1 billion. According to Bloomberg, Ousmane Bah was arrested at his home back in November and was charged with stealing from an Apple store.
In his lawsuit filed yesterday, Bah said that the arrest warrant included a photo that didn’t resemble him at all. He also noted that one of the thefts in Boston with which he was charged, took place on the day when he was attending his senior prom in Manhattan.
Bah wrote in the complaint that he was “forced to respond to multiple false allegations which led to severe stress and hardship”:
“Bah said he had previously lost a non-photo learner’s permit, which may have been found or stolen by the real thief and used as identification in Apple stores. As a result, Bah claimed, his name may have been mistakenly connected to the thief’s face in Apple’s facial-recognition system, which he said the company uses in its stores to track people suspected of theft.”
Meanwhile, Apple has responded to the allegations by simply saying it does not use facial recognition in its stores.
