Biometric Information Privacy Act coverage: per-scan damages, written consent requirements, employer fingerprint timeclock claims and settlements.
Illinois BIPA is the only major biometric statute with a private right of action, which is why it produces settlements out of proportion to its single-state reach. This hub tracks damages rulings, the consent and retention-policy requirements, and the employer timeclock cases that make up much of the docket.
Two 2023 decisions of the Illinois Supreme Court set the outer bounds of exposure under the Biometric Information Privacy Act, and the legislature answered one of them in 2024. The reasoning in each is more revealing than the result: both courts reached conclusions the statutory text compelled while acknowledging the consequences.
Read more →Section 10 of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act carves health care information out of the definition of a biometric identifier. In Mosby v. Ingalls Memorial Hospital, the Illinois Supreme Court held that the carve-out is two clauses joined by "or" and that only the first is limited to patients. The second turns on purpose, whatever the source.
Read more →The Illinois Workers' Compensation Act makes its own remedies exclusive for injuries covered by it, and Illinois employers argued that a fingerprint timeclock claim was such an injury. In McDonald v. Symphony Bronzeville Park, the Illinois Supreme Court answered the certified question in the negative, on grounds that turn on what kind of injury the compensation scheme was built to price.
Read more →Illinois BIPA is the only major US biometric statute that lets individuals sue directly, which is why a single-state law drives nationwide settlement exposure. This guide sets out what the statute requires, what the Illinois Supreme Court has held about accrual and injury, and where the obligations sit relative to biometric rules in other states.
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