Employment Law
Your Biometric Data Is Yours
Employers increasingly ask workers to scan fingerprints, faces, or eyes to clock in or access systems. Handing over biometric data exposes you to serious risk if it is mishandled. Illinois law gives employees real protection and real remedies when that data is collected without proper consent.
Employment Law
Your body is not a password.
Your data is not free for the taking.
The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, enacted in 2008, was the first biometric regulation in the United States. It lets employees whose biometric data was gathered without written consent take legal action against their employer. Companies must keep a written policy covering collection, retention, and destruction, disclose that policy in advance, and obtain a signed release before collecting fingerprints, retina or iris scans, voiceprints, hand scans, or facial geometry.
What BIPA protects.
Written Consent
An employer cannot collect, store, use, or share your biometric data without your explicit written consent.
Protected Data
Fingerprints, retina and iris scans, voiceprints, hand scans, and facial geometry are all covered under BIPA.
Required Policy
Employers must maintain and disclose a written policy for retaining and destroying biometric information.
Per-Violation Damages
Each improper collection can carry statutory damages, and violations often involve thousands of employees.
$0
Damages per negligent violation
$0
Damages per willful violation
0
Year BIPA became law
Fingerprints, retina or iris scans, voiceprints, hand scans, and facial geometry are protected. Photos, signatures, and physical descriptions are not.
Statutory damages run to $1,000 per negligent violation and up to $5,000 for each willful or reckless violation.
BIPA allows claims based on the violation itself, which is why hundreds of thousands of employees have been able to pursue action.
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