An interesting New York Times article last week posited that governments’ use of digital surveillance techniques for the COVID-19 response – such as the tracking of geolocation to gauge quarantine restrictions – would lead to...more
While Washington’s comprehensive data privacy bill (SB 6182) — inspired by California’s CCPA — died when legislators could not hammer out a compromise over enforcement mechanisms, the state legislature did reach agreement and...more
In an important opinion, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s ruling that plaintiffs in the ongoing Facebook biometric privacy class action have alleged a concrete injury-in-fact to confer Article III standing and that...more
8/12/2019
/ Article III ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Facebook ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Fingerprints ,
IL Supreme Court ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Social Media ,
Standing ,
Statutory Violations
In the wake of the Illinois Supreme Court decision that held that claimants need only allege a procedural violation to have standing to bring an action under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) and the...more
Senators Brian Schatz (D) and Roy Blunt (R) recently introduced S.847, the “Commercial Facial Recognition Privacy Act of 2019,” a bill that would, subject to certain important exceptions, generally prohibit the commercial use...more
3/26/2019
/ Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Covered Entities ,
Data Collection ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
IL Supreme Court ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Proposed Legislation
In a long-awaited decision, the Illinois Supreme Court issued its ruling in Rosenbach v. Six Flags Entertainment Corp., 2019 IL 123186 (Ill. Jan. 25, 2019), on whether a person “aggrieved” by a violation of the Illinois...more
Last December, we noted the continuing robust wave of Illinois biometric privacy suits. At that time, dozens of suits had been filed in Illinois state court against Illinois-based employers and other businesses alleging...more
Late last month, an Illinois appellate court reversed a lower court’s dismissal of biometric privacy claims against a tanning salon franchisee that had collected the plaintiff’s fingerprint to allow entry in its own salon and...more
An Illinois district court remanded to state court for lack of standing a biometric privacy suit brought by employees over the collection and storage of individuals’ fingerprints allegedly in violation of the Illinois...more
7/19/2018
/ Article III ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
Data Security ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fingerprints ,
IL Supreme Court ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Standing
Last December, an Illinois appellate court, in the Rosenbach v. Six Flags decision (2017 IL App (2d) 170317 (Dec. 21, 2017)), dismissed biometric privacy claims lodged against theme park operators for collecting fingerprints...more
As discussed in past posts about the long-running Facebook biometric privacy class action, users are challenging Facebook’s “Tag Suggestions” program, which scans for and identifies people in uploaded photographs for photo...more
6/1/2018
/ Article III ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Class Certification ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Dormant Commerce Clause ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Facebook ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Photographs ,
Private Right of Action ,
Standing
We have written before about the issues presented by the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, 740 Ill. Comp Stat. 14/1 (“BIPA”). BIPA is still the only state biometric privacy statute with a private right of action. It...more
This week, the District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed the Gullen putative class action asserting Illinois biometric privacy claims brought by “non-users” based on evidence that the social media site...more
4/6/2018
/ Article III ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Facebook ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Photographs ,
Standing ,
Summary Judgment
This past week, a California district court again declined Facebook’s motion to dismiss an ongoing litigation involving claims under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, 740 Ill. Comp Stat. 14/1 (“BIPA”),...more
3/5/2018
/ Article III ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Facebook ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Photographs ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Standing ,
VPPA
We have been closely following the legal and legislative developments relating to biometric privacy, and in particular, the flow of litigation under the Illinois biometrics privacy law. It was interesting to see how the...more
As 2017 drew to an end, we noted the continuing flood of Illinois biometric privacy suits filed over the past year. There are literally dozens of cases pending, most in Illinois state courts, alleging violation of Illinois’s...more
After noting the flood of Illinois biometric privacy suits in September, it appears that the flow of such suits remains robust. Dozens of suits have been filed in Illinois state court against Illinois-based employers and...more
With the flood of Illinois biometric privacy suits lodged against employers in recent months, and multiple biometric privacy suits against social media and other mobile platforms currently pending over the use of photo...more
This month, in one of the many recently-filed Illinois biometric privacy suits, a class action complaint alleging violations of Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) was lodged against Wow Bao, a restaurant...more
9/28/2017
/ Attorney's Fees ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
Data Retention ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Fingerprints ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Private Right of Action ,
Social Media ,
Written Consent
This week’s Apple X announcement was not more than a few hours old, and the questions began to come in. Apple’s introduction of Face ID facial recognition on its new phone – although already available in some form on several...more
9/15/2017
/ Apple ,
Biometric Information ,
COPPA ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Use Policies ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
iPhone ,
Mobile Apps ,
Mobile Privacy ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Spoofing
Even though Washington passed its own biometric privacy law last month (HB 1493), and other states are currently debating their own bills, Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) is still the crux of biometric and...more
6/13/2017
/ Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Fingerprints ,
Notice and Comment ,
Notice Requirements ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Supermarkets
We’ve closely followed the numerous biometric privacy disputes and legislative developments surrounding the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), which precludes the unauthorized collection and storing of some...more
3/3/2017
/ Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Google ,
Information Technology ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Photographs ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Social Media ,
Technology Sector
We’ve written extensively about the numerous lawsuits, dismissals and settlements surrounding the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The statute, generally speaking, prohibits an entity from collecting,...more
2/24/2017
/ Article III ,
Background Checks ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Retention ,
Data Security ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Parental Consent ,
Personal Data ,
Popular ,
Prior Express Consent ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Retail Market ,
Retailers ,
Software ,
Standing ,
Technology ,
Technology Sector
For the second time in the past six months, a district court has dismissed a lawsuit alleging procedural and technical violations of the Illinois biometric privacy statute for lack of Article III standing. In Vigil v....more
2/3/2017
/ Article III ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Data Collection ,
Data Retention ,
Dismissals ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Software ,
Standing ,
Technology ,
Technology Sector ,
Video Games
Earlier this month, an Illinois state court approved a $1.5 million settlement in a class action against L.A. Tan Enterprises, Inc., operator (directly and through franchisees) of L.A. Tan tanning salons. The settlement...more