Motorola Mobility, the renowned Chicago-based company, is currently facing a legal battle in the form of a lawsuit brought forth by a large group of Illinois-based smartphone users. These users claim that their privacy rights have been violated due to the unauthorized collection of personal data from selfies. They are pushing for arbitration, alleging that Motorola Mobility has brazenly ignored their own arbitration clause when they failed to pay the mandated $7.2 million filing fee in response to the mass arbitration claim that was filed earlier in February.

This particular arbitration action was sparked by claims that Motorola had not complied with the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. The company has been accused of stealthily gathering personal data from users' selfies without their formal consent. According to the aggrieved parties, Motorola, which offers devices such as Moto, Razr and Edge that come equipped with robust cameras that employ facial recognition and artificial intelligence (AI) for identifying and saving selfie images, has deliberately overstepped its boundaries.

In an interesting twist, Motorola Mobility was acquired by Google for $12.5 billion in 2012. Prior to this acquisition, the mobile phone pioneer had split into two distinct enterprises, with Motorola Solutions shifting its corporate headquarters from Schaumburg to Chicago’s West Loop neighbourhood in 2016. The latter business enterprise focuses on the provision of public safety communications devices. Subsequently, Lenovo procured Motorola Mobility from Google in 2014, relocating the company in the process.

It needs to be noted that the arbitration clause specified by Motorola Mobility in their terms of service strictly prohibits class-action lawsuits when it comes to resolving disputes with customers. The lawsuit puts forth that the company failed to adhere to its own stipulation when it declined to pay filing fees when faced with the mass arbitration claims. To add insult to injury, Motorola reversed its decision and paid the filing fee for one petitioner based in California. However, it still refused to pay the rest of the fee.

Motorola is reported to have justified its refusal to pay on the grounds of the $100 million biometric privacy class-action settlement approved by Google. However, the arbitrator was not having it and ruled that Motorola was legally obligated to make the $7.2 million payment. The company declined to oblige and the case was subsequently shut down due to lack of payment. It is interesting to note that the arbitration action actually zoomed in on the camera features of Motorola's devices and the company's own photo gallery app.

Attorney Melissa Nafash from the New York-based Labaton Sucharow law firm, which has been actively involved in this case, believes that Motorola is strategically trying to skirt around the privacy issue without allowing it to be legally scrutinized. Apparently, companies initially offered arbitration provisions under the pretext of being customer-friendly. However, Melissa argues that this was merely a ruse and the companies never intended to hear any claims.

It is worth noting that this lawsuit echoes a similar privacy action Labaton Sucharow had initiated against Samsung. The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, passed in 2008, is regarded as the strictest in the US, and it mandates companies to seek consent before leveraging technologies like facial recognition or fingerprint scans for identifying customers or employees. The law stipulates fines of $5,000 for intentional violations and $1,000 for negligent violation.