BIPA: Not Just For Cyber Companies

The recent onslaught of putative class actions alleging violations of Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act ("BIPA"), codified at 740 ILCS 14/1 et. seq., has left many Illinois companies scrambling to find answers (and defense lawyers).

While BIPA putative class actions have been filed against web-based companies like Shutterfly, Google, and Facebook, more recently it has been used to haul into court employers using the increasingly-popular "biometric time clocks." Biometric time clocks allow employees to clock in and out using a scan of their fingerprint or retina and have the advantage of providing efficiency and reliability, since they eliminate paper punch-cards, allow for real-time reports, and prevent fraudulent "buddy-clocking." However, Illinois companies using these time clocks must adhere to the guidelines espoused in BIPA.