US teen claims Apple's face recognition led to his false arrest, sues for $1bn

A teenager based in New York is suing Apple for USD 1 billion, over a false arrest he says took place because of what he believes to be Apple's facial recognition system.

The 18-year-old Ousmane Bah, who was arrested at his home in November last year, alleges that the warrant he was served included someone else's photo, the Washington Post reported.

The lawsuit also claims that a detective with the New York Police Department concluded that the thief caught by a store surveillance camera "looked nothing like" Bah. It further cites the detective to say that Apple uses facial recognition software to identify shoplifters.

Apple declined to comment on the lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, but said that it does not use such technology in its stores.

Bah was arrested after he was falsely linked to a series of Apple Store thefts in Boston, New Jersey, Delaware and Manhattan.

The lawsuit seeks damages of USD 1 billion, a declaration that Apple "wrongfully and baselessly damaged" Bah's reputation, and a court order compelling Apple to "address the mistake in the stored data" that links Bah's identifying information to the company's facial recognition technology.

Bah has claimed said his interim driver learner's permit, which does not have a photo, had been either lost or stolen. He also claimed to have never set foot in Boston and said he was attending his senior prom in Manhattan on the day the Boston store was hit.

Apparently, the real perpetrator used a stolen ID that had his name, address and other personal information. However, since the ID didn't have a photo, the lawsuit claims Apple programmed its stores' face recognition system to associate the real thief's face with Bah's details.