On May 22, 2023, the Maine Legislature held a public hearing on “H.P. 1094, An Act to Give Consumers Control Over Sensitive Personal Data By Requiring Consumer Consent Prior to Collection of Data” (“H.P. 1094”). H.P. 1094, introduced last month, is the second attempt in as many years by certain Maine legislators to pass a bill into law premised on Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”), as LD 1945, An Act to Regulate the Use of Biometric Identifiers, first introduced in January 2022 (“LD 1945”), stalled out in non-concurrence.
In the event that the Maine Legislature passes H.P. 1094, it will be effective January 1, 2025, and Maine will become only the second state in the nation to have a state biometric privacy law with a private right of action and significant potential liability for non-compliant corporate entities. Accordingly, companies doing business in Maine that utilize any technology involving employee or customer biometric identifiers, or which otherwise collect, use, obtain, store, possess, or transmit biometric identifiers, should at minimum actively track H.P. 1094, as it continues to wind its way through committees.
The following chart identifies the key provisions of H.P. 1094 and how they compare to BIPA.