Collecting Employee Biometric Data Could Prove Costly in Illinois

James Hux authored the article, "Collecting Employee Biometric Data Could Prove Costly in Illinois," which was featured in SHRM on September 19, 2017. In the article, James discusses the importance of complying with biometric privacy laws and how not doing so could lead to costly litigation.

"As businesses collect more biometric data from workers—such as fingerprints that are used for timekeeping systems—Illinois employers must ensure that they are complying with the state's biometric privacy law or potentially face expensive class-action lawsuits.

There is an axiom in the computing industry that is referred to as Moore's law. Roughly stated, Moore's law provides that the power of computing will double every two years. The result of this compounding process is exponential growth in technology.

One might say that with that growth in technology comes a Moore's law-like growth in the potential for legal liability. It is apparent that the explosion of new forms of technology, combined with emerging legislation and issues relating to the consent, disclosure and dissemination of technological data, have greatly increased the number of legal headaches that might arise for employers."

To read the full article, please visit SHRM.