MediaPost: Illinois Privacy Law Covers 'Faceprints,' Judge Says
In a first, a federal judge has ruled that a biometric privacy law in Illinois potentially prohibits Web companies from compiling databases of faceprints.
U.S. District Court Judge Charles Norgle in Illinois this week rejected online photo service Shutterfly’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that it violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. That law, which dates to 2008, prohibits companies from storing people’s “biometric identifiers,” including scans of face geometry, without their consent.
The ruling grew out of a potential class-action lawsuit filed in June by Robert Norberg. He alleged that his faceprint was added to Shutterfly’s database after his picture was uploaded to the online photo service, and tagged with his name, by someone else.
Chicago Sun Times: Thank goodness Chicago won't host the 2016 Olympics
Suddenly it’s 2016, the year of the Summer Olympics, which Chicago will not be hosting.
The 2016 Games will take place in Rio de Janeiro, the first time the Olympics have been held in a Portuguese-speaking nation or on the continent of South America.
WGN: Largest property tax hike in Chicago’s history kicks in
It is going to cost a lot more to live in Chicago in 2016.
The largest property tax in the city’s history will kick in. Annual bills will increase by $300 dollars on a home worth $250,000.
Property owners will also have to pay nine dollars and 50 cents a month for garbage collection. It will also cost 15 percent more to ride a taxi in Chicago. Cook County sales taxes are also going up one cent for every dollar.
Chicago Mag: Gangs and Politicians in Chicago: An Unholy Alliance
A few months before last February’s citywide elections, Hal Baskin’s phone started ringing. And ringing. Most of the callers were candidates for Chicago City Council, seeking the kind of help Baskin was uniquely qualified to provide.
Baskin isn’t a slick campaign strategist. He’s a former gang leader and, for several decades, a community activist who now operates a neighborhood center that aims to keep kids off the streets. Baskin has deep contacts inside the South Side’s complex network of politicians, community organizations, and street gangs. as he recalls, the inquiring candidates wanted to know: “Who do I need to be talking to so I can get the gangs on board?”
Crain's: City Hall hires connected D.C. firm for Justice Department probe
Chicago has hired two outside law firms to represent the city and the Chicago Police Department in the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights investigation into policing practices.
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr will lead the effort, supported by the Chicago office of Taft Stettinius & Hollister, said Corporation Counsel Stephen Patton, the city’s top lawyer. Wilmer Hale is one of the 25 largest firms in the country and is representing Baltimore in that city’s investigation by the Justice Department. The Washington D.C. firm has 14 offices but no presence in Chicago.
Billing rates for lawyers working on the case will range from $290 to $1,200. It’s too early to project what the total bill will be, but hiring a firm that already has expertise in this area sidesteps a “penny wise, pound foolish” approach that trades lower rates for a longer process, Patton said.