Seeking Permission Before Obtaining Biometric Identifiers
The recent ruling against Six Flags by the Illinois Supreme Court might soon change the way that businesses go about collecting biometric data in the future.
The case involved a 14 year old boy who had his fingerprint scanned when he went to pick up a season pass for the park during a group trip. The fingerprint scanning wasn't out of the ordinary as the park has been collecting this biometric data from guests regularly for years now.
However, the mother of the boy said that she didn't give permission for the company to collect and store that biometric data. The company attempted to argue that no harm was inflicted by obtaining that biometric information; they didn't suffer any injury.
The court felt that just the violation alone was sufficient:
“The violation, in itself, is sufficient to support the individual’s or customer’s statutory cause of action,”
The Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) requires companies like Six Flags to obtain written consent before they collect and use any guest data. If visitors to the park are not informed of how their information is going to be collected, then this inhibits their ability to provide meaningful and informed consent.
The court determined that violating the biometric privacy law only required a violation and didn't require any harm being necessarily being inflicted.
Other states have also passed legislation that seeks to protect the rights of individuals in limiting how private companies can go about obtaining their personal biometric identification. It's likely that a growing number of states might consider implementing similar changes, if more people continue to express concern about the issue.
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I get it there should be some sort of handout, but how many people are actually going to read and understand something like that.
Seems like they just need a procedure and to train there employees to explain to customers how the data is used and if that isnt good enough some document explaining how. I guess my point is Im glad people ask so they can be informed, but hope they dont put some over the top requirement in to fix this small problem.
in this circumstance the company didn't make an honest attempt to educate
Great conversation to be having currently. Good job by the Mom.
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This had some interesting points...giving some important things to think about.