Illinois is considered one of the foremost areas when it comes to biometric privacy laws. But now recently the Illinois Governor amended to the law that will be less costly to business owners.
The Biometric Information Privacy Act, or BIPA, is not the first such law but it is one of the most comprehensive in the nation. The law, passed in 2008 is extremely comprehensive in its wording. The law ensures that individuals are in control of their own biometric data and prohibits private companies from collecting it unless they:
Biometric information includes retina or iris scans, fingerprints, voiceprints, hand scans, facial geometry, DNA, and other unique biological information. (1)
The penalties from this act were originally set that each individual record that was collected without consent or informing each person. The law also provides damages of $1,000 for each negligent violation and $5,000 for each intentional or reckless violation. In 2021, Six Flags reached a $36 Million dollar settlement over the negligence to inform their customers what they were going to do with their fingerprinting data, after the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in 2019, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that “an individual need not allege some actual injury or adverse effect, beyond violation of his or her rights” in order to qualify as an “aggrieved” person under BIPA, and be entitled to damages and other relief.(2)
Recently, Illinois governor J.B Pritzker, signed Senate Bill 2979, which is an amendment to BIPA. “(b) For purposes of subsection (b) of Section 15, a private entity that, in more than one instance, collects, captures, purchases, receives through trade, or otherwise obtains the same biometric identifier or biometric information from the same person using the same method of collection in violation of subsection (b) of Section 15 has committed a single violation of subsection (b) of Section 15 for which the aggrieved person is entitled to, at most, one recovery under this Section.”(3)
Before the amendment, BIPA counted each individual negligent storage as a separate charge, with multiple charges per person affected. Now it only counts each person affected as one charge for the fines BIPA enforces. In addition, they now add electronic signatures as covered under BIPA’s regulation.
BIPA is still one of the standards when it comes to protecting your biometrics from being used in identity theft. The new amendment does not change that but makes it easier for businesses to either keep track or pay the fines. However, it is still important to check what the rules in regard to data storage before you give permission to use your information.
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Formed in 1999, Axis Insurance Services, LLC is a nationwide leader in the professional and management liability insurance industry, developing innovative risk management solutions for today’s evolving businesses. We offer insurance programs to a broad array of professionals and industries, including insurance agents/brokers, attorneys, commercial real estate firms, technology, healthcare/medical, financial institutions, architects/engineers, consulting firms, media, and many others.
In 2014, we launched PLRisk in 2014 and today the two firms provide retail and wholesale coverage solutions for Cyber Liability & Privacy/Network Security, Errors and Omissions, Directors and Officers, Employment Practices Liability, Commercial Crime and Fiduciary coverage.
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