Apple is facing a $1 billion lawsuit which has been filed by an 18 year old from New York, following a false arrest. According to him, Apple’s facial recognition system is entirely at fault for the arrest and his entire academic life has been turned upside-down.
NYPD officers arrested Ousmane Bah at 4 a.m on November 29th and accused him of a series of thefts that took place at Apple Stores in Boston, New Jersey, Delaware and Manhattan.
According to Bah though, someone stole his driver’s permit and then used it to identify themselves as him when they got caught stealing from the Boston Apple Store. Since his driver’s permit did not have a photo, Apple security took a photo of the thief and associated it to Bah’s personal information in the system.
When the thief went on to commit other thefts in other Apple Stores, Apple wrongly determined that it was Bah himself who had done it.
Bah also claims that he had never even been to Boston in the first place and that he was actually attending his senior prom in New York City on the day the theft took place.
Sure enough, when an detective saw the Apple security footage, he concluded that the thief did not resemble the man they arrested in the slightest.
According to Bah, the NYPD detective was the one who told him that Apple security employs the use of facial recognition, however, following news of the lawsuit, when contacted by Engadget, an Apple spokesperson told them that the company does not use facial recognition technology in its stores.
The lawsuit states that the wrongful arrest had affected Bah’s college education, especially since he was supposed to be taking a midterm on the day it happened. Bah also claims he missed a lot of school days because he had to travel and respond to the charges in different states.
For now, the charges against Bah have been dropped in New York, Delaware and Massachusetts but still stand in New Jersey at the time this article is being written.
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