Biometric Privacy Class Actions By The Numbers: Analyzing Illinois' Hottest Class Action Trend

Seyfarth Synopsis: Over the last few years, Illinois companies have quickly become aware of the risks associated with the state's unique biometric privacy law. Originally passed in 2008, the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act ("BIPA") made Illinois the first state to enact a policy governing the collection and storage of biometric data resulting in a surge of class action lawsuits filed by employees and consumers alleging that their biometric data was improperly collected for timekeeping, security, and consumer transactions. While filing activity under the statute remained silent for nearly a decade following its enactment, the recent explosion of class actions in Illinois under the BIPA has since made biometric privacy compliance a top priority for many employers. In today's blog, we examine this novel class action trend and provide a comprehensive analysis of the class action filing history of claims under the BIPA including the volume of class action filings,