Car Rental & Grocery-Restaurant · Restaurant · Private litigation
Steak 'n Shake
Headline
The BIPA class action (Massel v. Steak N Shake) concerns CUSTOMERS, not employees: it alleges the chain's self-service ordering kiosks used facial recognition to collect customers' face biometric data without the…
Not independently verified. Verification status: Unverified - heuristic first draft. Publish state: draft unverified.
The BIPA class action (Massel v. Steak N Shake) concerns CUSTOMERS, not employees: it alleges the chain's self-service ordering kiosks used facial recognition to collect customers' face biometric data without the written notice and consent Illinois requires. That makes it unusual - most restaurant BIPA cases involve employee fingerprint timeclocks - and a sign that customer-facing kiosks are now a litigation target. Allegations, not findings.
- Severity
- Evidence tierUnassigned
- Claims confirmed
- Last verified2026-08-04
Case status. Private litigation; no sources are on file yet, so no legal tier is assigned.
Primary source. None recorded — Unverified - heuristic first draft.
Terms
Arbitration
Not independently confirmed this pass — standard binding arbitration + class action waiver expected.
Data sharing
BIPA CLASS ACTION (current status not verified as of Oct 2026; Massel v. Steak N Shake Inc., N.D. Illinois): Steak 'n Shake introduced FACIAL-RECOGNITION SELF-ORDERING KIOSKS (vendor not confirmed in reporting reviewed) to speed up ordering and track loyalty rewards; the lawsuit alleges the chain collected customers' FACIAL GEOMETRY DATA without the written notice and consent Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) requires, and without publishing a legally required data retention/destruction policy. The complaint specifically emphasizes that facial geometry, unlike a password or even a Social Security number, is PERMANENT and cannot be changed if compromised. Plaintiff seeks to represent all Illinois customers whose biometric data was collected over the prior 5 years, with damages up to $5,000 per violation — potentially reaching into the millions given the kiosks' broad rollout. Illinois has since AMENDED BIPA so that repeated collections of the SAME biometric identifier from the SAME person via the SAME method now count as ONE violation rather than compounding per-scan, which may reduce (but not eliminate) the eventual damages exposure in this specific case.
Fees and billing
Not itemized this pass.
Contacts
Privacy contact. Not recorded.
Legal notice. Not verified this pass. If publicly traded: SEC Form 10-K cover page gives the official corporate address; the Secretary of State business-entity search in the state of incorporation gives the registered agent, which must accept service. If private: the state registered agent is usually the only reliable route.
Mailing address. Not recorded.
Evidence
No claims have been itemized for this row yet.
No sources are on file for this row yet.
Source vault
Link status: Candidate - not yet fetched
| Document | Last fetch | |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy policy steaknshake.com/privacy-policy | Not fetched yet | NO (HTML only) |
| Terms of service steaknshake.com/terms-of-use | Not fetched yet | NO (HTML only) |
| Website No URL recorded | Not fetched yet | — |
| Primary source No URL recorded Verification: Unverified - heuristic first draft | Not fetched yet | — |
Enforcement
No enforcement actions are linked to this row.
State statute
No HQ state on file, so no state statute applies by headquarters.