18-year-old Ousmane Bah has recently filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the technology giant, Apple. The teen claims that the facial recognition feature on his Apple device incorrectly identified and linked him with numerous theft-related activities around a number of Apple stores in multiple states.
CBS reports that Ousmane Bah has been arrested last November 29, 2018, by the New York Police District. Upon his arrest, NYPD detective John Reinhold commented that Bah did not look anything like the suspect shown in the surveillance footage from the Manhattan store.
The teen was being accused of stealing $1,200 worth of merchandise from the said the technology giant from its store in Boston last May 31, 2018, CNET notes that the actual thief showed getting Apple Pencils, using a stolen identification card named under Ousmane Bah. The stolen ID could belong to a learner’s permit lost by the teen, one that did not have a photo.
However, Ousmane claims that he could not have been involved with the theft primarily because he had been preoccupied with attending his senior prom in Manhattan, states The Verge. CBS also notes that apart from being linked to the Boston theft, Bah was also wrongly implicated in store thefts in Delaware and New Jersey.
As of writing, the charges against Bah have been dropped except in the state of New Jersey.
Justification of $1 Billion Lawsuit
Following this stream of events, the teen decided to file a $1 billion lawsuit against Apple. According to CBS, being a college student, Ousmane Bah suffered from extreme stress and anxiety after being “forced to respond to multiple false allegations.” The complaint was further detailed that the teen, who was just in freshman year of college, expressed concern and fear over being arrested for a crime he did not commit in the first place.
Meanwhile, Apple’s comment simply states that it does not use facial recognition software in any of its stores.
