Biometric Fingerprint Privacy Class Action Filed Against Chicago Hilton

A former housekeeper for Hilton Hotels has filed a class action lawsuit over the company’s use of biometric fingerprint technology.

Lead plaintiff Taylor B. was employed at a Chicago hotel owned and operated by defendant Hilton Management, LLC for less than 3 weeks, and claims that management required employees to clock in and out with a fingerprint scanner, which she says was a violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.

Case Background

According to the complaint, Taylor and her fellow employees were required to scan their fingerprints into a biometric fingerprint scanning device when clocking in and out for their shifts and when leaving for and returning from breaks. This was a condition of their employment.

However, Taylor says they never gave their informed consent to having their “sensitive and proprietary” personal information collected, used and stored as they claim was done at the Doubletree Hilton at which they were employed.

About Illinois Biometric Privacy Law

Passed by the Illinois General Assembly in 2008, the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA, also codified as Public Act 095-994) prohibits the illegal collection and storage of people’s biometric information, i.e. fingerprints, retina scans and other unique physical traits that are used for digital, automated recognition.

Since the passage of the Illinois law, the states of Texas and Washington have followed up with their own versions of the legislation. However, under the Illinois BIPA, individuals are allowed to file lawsuits over alleged violations.

If said violation is shown to be intentional or reckless, the liable party can be fined as much as $5,000 for each violation. Furthermore, a plaintiff is not required to prove that they suffered actual damages – only that the defendant violated the law by illegally storing and sharing the personal biometric data in question.

A number of other companies besides Hilton have been hit with class action lawsuits over alleged violations of BIPA, including WalMart and Google.

What is Biometric Fingerprint Technology?

As noted earlier, the science of biometrics is that which calculates and measures a person’s unique physical characteristics, using scanning technology. It has its origins in the work of late 19th-Century French criminologist Alponse Bertillon and his English contemporary, Sir Francis Galton.

According to author and historian Josh Ellenbogan, their work attempted to apply mathematical principles to such things as fingerprints and facial characteristics as well as phrenology, a now-discredited pseudoscience that was once used to predict psychological and emotional tendencies based on the shape of a person’s skull, according to the victorianweb.org.

The Danger of Storing and Sharing Biometric Fingerprint Data

Taylor’s class action lawsuit points out that serious data breaches have taken place over the past several years at a number of major companies, including the credit reporting bureau Equifax. That data consisted of information such as addresses, social security numbers, and bank accounts.

Those risks are even greater with data such as biometric fingerprint, voice pattern and facial recognition data, for which a thriving, underground black market is already doing a brisk business.

The current Biometric Fingerprint Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 2019CH09270, in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill.

Join a Free Illinois Biometric Data Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you are a current or former resident of Illinois and had your biometric information scanned and stored without your consent while living in the state, you may qualify to join an Illinois biometric data privacy class action lawsuit investigation.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented 
for informational purposes only.