Vance v. Google LLC

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedFebruary 12, 2021
Docket5:20-cv-04696
StatusUnknown

This text of Vance v. Google LLC (Vance v. Google LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vance v. Google LLC, (N.D. Cal. 2021).

Opinion

1 2 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 3 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 4 SAN JOSE DIVISION 5 6 STEVEN VANCE, et al., Case No. 5:20-CV-04696-BLF

7 Plaintiffs, ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO 8 v. STAY AND TERMINATING MOTION TO DISMISS 9 GOOGLE LLC, a Delaware limited liability company [Re: ECF 33, 34] 10 Defendant. 11

12 Before the Court is Defendant Google LLC’s (“Google”) motion to stay all proceedings in 13 this action until the resolution of Vance v. International Business Machines, Corporation (“IBM 14 action”), currently before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. No. 1:20- 15 CV-0577, ECF 1. For the reasons set forth below, the Court GRANTS Google’s motion. 16 17 I. BACKGROUND 18 On January 24, 2020, Plaintiffs Steven Vance and Tim Janecyk (collectively, “Vance”) 19 filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleging that International 20 Business Machines, Corporation (“IBM”) violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act 21 (“BIPA”). See Opp., ECF 42 at 2. Id. BIPA prohibits private entities from collecting, capturing, 22 obtaining, disclosing, redisclosing, disseminating or profiting from the biometric identifiers or 23 information of an individual without providing written notice and without obtaining a written 24 release from the impacted individual or his authorized representative. 740 Ill. Comp. Stat. § 14/15. 25 BIPA defines biometric identifiers as including a scan of an individual’s facial geometry and 26 biometric information as any information “based on an individual’s biometric identifier used to 27 identify an individual.” Id. § 14/10. BIPA creates a private right of action that allows a plaintiff to 1 Id. § 740/20. 2 A. The IBM Action 3 The facts of the IBM action are alleged as follows. In 2008, Vance uploaded photos of 4 himself and his family members to Flickr from his computer in Illinois. Lange Declaration 5 (“Lange Decl.”), ECF 42-1, Ex. B ¶ 23 (“IBM Complaint”). Flickr subsequently made Vance’s 6 photos, as well as millions of other people’s photos, available to IBM in a single downloadable 7 dataset (“Flickr dataset”). Id. ¶ 40. IBM captured biometrics from these photographs by scanning 8 the faces and extracting geometric data relating to the contours of the faces. Id. It used this data to 9 create its own dataset of “frontal-facing images of human faces” (“IBM dataset”). Id. ¶¶ 41-46. In 10 2019, IBM included images from the IBM Dataset into a larger dataset it created known as the 11 “Diversity in Faces” dataset (“DiF dataset”). Id. ¶ 47. Vance alleges IBM used the DiF dataset to 12 profit “from the biometric identifiers and information of Plaintiffs and Class Members” in 13 violation of BIPA, among other things. Id. ¶ 52. 14 Vance brought seven causes of action against IBM: (1) violation of BIPA § 14/15(a) by 15 wrongfully possessing Vance’s biometric identifiers; (2) violation of BIPA § 14/15(b) by 16 wrongfully collecting biometric identifiers; (3) violation of BIPA § 14/15(c) by wrongfully 17 profiting from biometric identifiers; (4) violation of BIPA § 14/15(d) by wrongfully disclosing 18 biometric identifiers; (5) violation of BIPA § 14/15(e) by wrongfully failing to protect biometric 19 identifiers from disclosure; (6) unjust enrichment; and (7) injunctive relief. IBM Complaint ¶¶ 68- 20 118. On September 15, 2020, the Northern District of Illinois dismissed Vance’s causes of action 21 under BIPA § 14/15(a) and for injunctive relief and allowed the other claims to proceed. Vance v. 22 Int’l Bus. Machines, Corp., No. 20 C 577, 2020 WL 5530134, *6 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 15, 2020). 23 Discovery in the IBM action is set to close on July 28, 2021. Lange Decl., ECF 42-1, Ex D. 24 B. Other Related Cases 25 In addition to the IBM action, Vance has filed three other class action BIPA suits. On July 26 14, 2020, Vance filed a BIPA class action against Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft action”) in 27 the Western District of Washington. Lange Decl., ECF 42-1, Ex. E. The Microsoft action alleges 1 contained therein in violation of BIPA. Id. ¶ 55. On July 14, 2020, Microsoft Corporation filed a 2 motion to dismiss, which, as of February 8, 2021, has not yet been adjudicated. No. 2:20-CV- 3 01082, ECF 25. 4 On July 14, 2020, Vance filed a BIPA class action suit against Amazon.com, Inc. 5 (“Amazon action”) in the Western District of Washington. Lange Decl. ECF 42-1, Ex. F. As in the 6 Microsoft action, Vance claims Amazon.com, Inc. obtained the DiF dataset from IBM and used 7 biometric identifiers in violation of BIPA. Id. ¶ 61. Amazon.com, Inc. filed a motion to dismiss, 8 which, as of February 8, 2021, has not yet been adjudicated. No. 2:20-CV-01084, ECF 18. 9 Finally, also on July 14, 2020, Vance filed a class action BIPA suit against FaceFirst, Inc. 10 (“FaceFirst action”) in the Central District of California. Lange Decl., ECF 42-1, Ex. G. As in the 11 Microsoft and Amazon actions, Vance claims FaceFirst, Inc. obtained the DiF dataset from IBM 12 and used biometric identifiers in violation of BIPA. Id. ¶ 55. Facefirst, Inc. filed a motion to 13 dismiss and a motion to stay, neither of which have been adjudicated as of February 8, 2021. No. 14 2:20-CV-06244, ECF 53, 54. 15 Neither Amazon.com, Inc. nor Microsoft Corporation has requested a stay in their 16 respective action, but FaceFirst, Inc. has requested a stay in the FaceFirst action. 17 C. The Instant Case 18 On July 14, 2020, Vance filed the instant suit against Google. See Compl., ECF 1. Vance 19 seeks to represent a class of “all Illinois residents” whose faces are in or depicted in the DiF 20 dataset photo sharing service which it alleges was passed from IBM to Google in violation of 21 BIPA. See Compl. ¶¶ 29, 40, 55, 82; Lange Decl., ECF 42-1, Ex. A ¶ 44. The complaint alleges 22 four causes of action against Google: (1) violation of BIPA § 14/15(b); (2) violation of BIPA § 23 14/15(c); (3) unjust enrichment; and (4) injunctive relief. Compl. ¶¶ 92, 99,106, 116. 24 II. JUDICIAL NOTICE 25 Google requests the Court judicially notice four documents filed in federal courts outside 26 of the Northern District of California: (A) Vance’s second amended class action complaint in the 27 IBM action; (B) a print out of the docket in the IBM action; (C) Vance’s class action complaint in 1 Exs. A-D. 2 Vance requests the Court judicially notice documents filed in federal courts outside of the 3 Northern District of California as well as six documents filed in state court in Cook County, 4 Illinois: (A) Vance’s class action complaint in the IBM action; (B) Vance’s second amended class 5 action complaint in the IBM action; (C) IBM’s memorandum in support of its motion to dismiss 6 Vance’s complaint in the IBM action; (D) the October 12, 2020 scheduling order in the IBM 7 action; (E) Vance’s class action complaint in the Microsoft action; (F) Vance’s class action 8 complaint in the Amazon action; (G) Vance’s class action complaint in the FaceFirst action; (H) 9 an October 23, 2020 copy of the docket for the Microsoft action; (I) an October 23, 2020 copy of 10 the docket for the Amazon action; (J) the October 21, 2020 scheduling order for the Microsoft 11 action; and (K) which includes: (1) an order from Mutnick v. Clearview AI, Inc., et al., No. 1:20- 12 CV-00512 (N.D. Ill May 19, 2020), ECF 61; (2) Grabawska v. The Millard Group, LLC, No. 2017 13 CH 13730 (Cir. Ct. Cook Cty. Apr. 3, 2018) (Flynn, J.), Order Denying Stay; (3) Fields v. ABRA 14 Auto Body & Glass LP, No. 2017 CH 12271 (Cir. Ct. Cook Cty. Mar. 3, 2018) (Mitchell, J.), Case 15 Management Order; (4) Sharrieff v. Raymond Mgmt. Co., Inc. et al., No. 2018 CH 01496 (Cir. Ct. 16 Cook Cty. May 8, 2018) (Cohen, J.), Order Granting Motion to Submit Excess Pages and Denying 17 Motion to Stay; (5) Thome v. Flexicorps, Inc., No. 2018 CH 01751 (Cir. Ct. Cook Cty. May 8, 18 2018) (Demacopoulos, J.), Order Denying Motion to Stay; (6) Freeman v.

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Vance v. Google LLC, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vance-v-google-llc-cand-2021.