In light of the recent uptick in litigation involving the
decade-old Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the
Illinois state legislature is now considering amending the Act to
allow for business efficiency and to bring the Act back to what
some believe to be its original intent.
Generally speaking, BIPA, enacted in 2008, prohibits an entity
from collecting, capturing, purchasing or otherwise obtaining a
person's "biometric identifier" or "biometric
information," unless it satisfies certain notice, consent, and
data retention requirements. At the time the Act was passed into
law, the thought of an entity utilizing fingerprint or facial
recognition for employee identification was typically reserved for
high-net-worth entities or those with dire need for added levels of
security. Fast-forward to 2018, and the use of fingerprint or
facial recognition for employee identification is now common for
entities, small or large, across nearly every industry.
