Crate & Barrel Class Action Says Employee Finger Scans are Illegal

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Crate & Barrel was hit with a class action lawsuit by one of its former employees alleging that the company’s finger scanning practice violates biometric privacy laws in the state of Illinois.

Lead plaintiff Jennifer Chatman claims in the Crate & Barrel finger scan class action lawsuit that the interior design store requires employees to submit scans of their finger prints to clock in and out.

However, the retailer fails to tell employees how it stores the information or for how long – an alleged violation of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act.

“Employees have a proprietary right to control their biometric information,” alleges the Crate & Barrel finger scan class action lawsuit. “In failing to comply with the requirements of BIPA, employers intentionally interfere with each employees’ right of possession and control over their valuable, unique and permanent biometric data.”

In addition, claims the Crate & Barrel class action lawsuit, the company did not receive written permission from workers to obtain their valuable personal information and further distributed employee fingerprints to payroll companies.

“Unlike ID badges or time cards – which can be changes or replaced it stolen or compromised – finger prints are unique, permanent biometric identifiers associated with each employee,” points out the Crate & Barrel finger scan class action lawsuit. “This exposes [Crate & Barrel] employees to serious and irreversible privacy risks.”

The Crate & Barrel class action lawsuit alleges that there is already an illegal market for biometric information where sensitive personal information is available for a nominal fee.

Illinois, says the Crate & Barrel finger scan class action lawsuit, enacted its Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) in response to security concerns; however, Crate & Barrel disregarded the law when it came to her and other Illinois residents’ finger prints.

According to the Crate & Barrel class action lawsuit, the retailer continues to violate BIPA because it fails to do the following:

• Provide proper written information to employees about “the specific purpose and length of time for which their fingerprints were being collected, stored, disseminated and used”
• Use a “publicly available retention schedule and guidelines for permanently destroying” employees’ fingerprints
• Obtain written releases from employees “to collect, store, disseminate or otherwise use their fingerprints”

The Crate & Barrel finger scan class action lawsuit also alleges that the retailer discloses fingerprint data to a third-party payroll company in violation of the BIPA.

Further, the plaintiff says she suspects Crate & Barrel does not have a retention schedule or even guidelines for permanently destroying her and other former employees’ fingerprint information.

The Crate & Barrel finger scan class action lawsuit seeks to represent a Class of current and former Crate & Barrel employees in Illinois whose fingerprints were collected.

In addition to a statutory fine of $5,000 per violation, the plaintiff is seeking a court order requiring Crate & Barrel to revise its policies to come into compliance with the BIPA.

Chatman is represented by Ryan F. Stephan, James B. Zouras and Haley R. Jenkins of Stephan Zouras LLP.

The Crate & Barrel Finger Scan Class Action Lawsuit is Jennifer Chatman v. Euromarket Designs Inc. dba Crate & Barrel, Case No. 2018-CH-09277, in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois.