American Airlines and United Airlines have become the latest Illinois employers to be sued for allegedly violating Illinois’ biometric privacy law through the use of fingerprint-operated time clocks.
The flood of biometric privacy litigation engulfing tech companies and employers should make the General Assembly think twice before passing new regulations that could increase costs and compliance burdens for companies.
In 2017, increasing numbers of employees have sued their employers for alleged violations of Illinois’ biometric privacy law through the use of fingerprint-operated time clocks.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has held that face templates created from photographs uploaded to Google Photos are covered under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act.
A federal district court in New York has determined the mere violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act does not amount to an injury sufficient to allow video game players to sue in federal court.
A proposed amendment to the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act that would exclude facial-recognition technology used by Facebook from the privacy protections of the act has been postponed after privacy advocates and the Illinois attorney general raised concerns.