Companies Tackle Biometric Data Privacy Suits Under Illinois BIPA

On December 29, 2015, an Illinois federal court refused to dismiss a putative class action accusing an online image publishing service of unlawfully using facial recognition technology to gather biometric data from users' photographs in an alleged violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act ("BIPA"), finding that face geometry scans are not excluded from BIPA. However, on January 21, 2016, an Illinois federal judge dismissed a similar BIPA claim against a social media company, finding the company did not intentionally target Illinois residents in the company's alleged collection of biometric data from photographs posted on the site. The court thus found a lack of specific jurisdiction over the proposed class action.