We have been writing about the biometric privacy legal landscape, which has thus far been dominated by the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). While there are a number of states that are considering bills modeled after BIPA, Washington has enacted a bill that takes a dramatically different approach. On May 16, 2017, HB 1493 … Continue Reading
Even though Washington passed its own biometric privacy law last month (HB 1493), and other states are currently debating their own bills, Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) is still the crux of biometric and facial recognition privacy-related litigation. Such suits have typically involved social media services, video game makers or businesses that collect biometric … Continue Reading
Update: On March 9, 2017, Google filed a motion requesting the court certify an interlocutory appeal. In particular, Google contends that the following question satisfies the statutory criteria: whether the term “biometric identifier,” as defined in Illinois Biometric Privacy Act, includes information derived from photographs. We’ve closely followed the numerous biometric privacy disputes and legislative … Continue Reading
We’ve written extensively about the numerous lawsuits, dismissals and settlements surrounding the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The statute, generally speaking, prohibits an entity from collecting, capturing, purchasing, or otherwise obtaining a person’s “biometric identifier” or “biometric information,” unless it satisfies certain notice and consent and data retention requirements. The statute contains defined terms … Continue Reading
For the second time in the past six months, a district court has dismissed a lawsuit alleging procedural and technical violations of the Illinois biometric privacy statute for lack of Article III standing. In Vigil v. Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., No. 15-8211 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 27, 2017), the court dismissed Illinois biometric privacy claims against a … Continue Reading
Earlier this month, an Illinois state court approved a $1.5 million settlement in a class action against L.A. Tan Enterprises, Inc., operator (directly and through franchisees) of L.A. Tan tanning salons. The settlement resolved allegations that L.A. Tan violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting Illinois members’ fingerprints for verification during check-in without … Continue Reading
UPDATE: Prior to the close of the legislative session, the amended AB 83 failed to make it out committee. With the session ending on August 31st, the California legislature is debating a bill (AB 83) that would expand data security requirements for businesses that maintain personal information of California residents to include, among other things, protection … Continue Reading
We’ve previously blogged about the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) privacy multistakeholder process to address concerns associated with the emerging commercial use of facial recognition technology. Notably, last year, the self-regulatory initiative hit a stumbling block when nine consumer advocacy groups withdrew from the process due to a lack of consensus on a minimum … Continue Reading
Late last week, the Illinois state senate considered an amendment tacked onto to an unrelated bill that would have revised the Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, a law that has been the subject of much debate and litigation in the past year. This amendment had the potential to drastically affect the current litany of lawsuits … Continue Reading
The District Court for the Northern District of California recently issued what could be a very significant decision on a number of important digital law issues. These include: the enforceability of “clickwrap” as compared to “web wrap” website terms of use, the enforceability of a choice-of-law provision in such terms of use, and a preliminary … Continue Reading
As we have previously written about, there are several ongoing biometric privacy-related lawsuits alleging that facial recognition-based systems of photo tagging violate the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Add one more to the list. A Chicago resident brought a putative class action against Google for allegedly collecting, storing and using, without consent and in … Continue Reading
As we have previously noted, there are several ongoing privacy-related lawsuits alleging that facial recognition-based systems of photo tagging violate the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The photo storage service Shutterfly and the social network Facebook are both defending putative class action suits that, among other things, allege that such services created and stored … Continue Reading
As we have previously noted, Facebook has been named as a defendant in a number of lawsuits claiming that its facial recognition-based system of photo tagging violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). In a separate putative class action filed in Illinois federal court that involves the tagging of an “unwilling” non-user without his … Continue Reading
As discussed in a previous post on facial recognition technology, a putative class action has been filed against Facebook over the collection of “faceprints” for its online photo tagging function, Tag Suggestions. (See e.g., Licata v. Facebook, Inc., No. 2015CH05427 (Ill. Cir. Ct. Cook Cty. filed Apr. 1, 2015) (the case has been transferred to a … Continue Reading
This week, a major self-regulatory initiative intended to address privacy concerns associated with facial recognition technology hit a significant stumbling block. Nine consumer advocacy groups withdrew from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)-initiative due to a lack of consensus on a minimum standard of consent. The NTIA initiative had been ongoing since early 2014. … Continue Reading