Class Action Lawsuit Says Nep Electronics Unlawfully Collected Biometric Information

A Nep Electronics Inc. employee has filed a class action lawsuit accusing the company of violating Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).

The BIPA violation class action lawsuit was filed an employee who says he worked at a Nep facility in Illinois. He says that while he was there, he was required to scan his biometric information for timekeeping purposes. Allegedly, this was required as a condition of his employment with the company.

The plaintiff describes a biometric identifier as “any personal feature that is unique to an individuals, including handprints, fingerprints, and palm scans.” He goes on to say that biometric information is “any information based on a biometric identifier, regardless of how it is stored,” as described by Illinois law.

The plaintiff says that he relied on Nep to give him all of the material and information about the biometric scan system, including information on how the company retained, destroyed, and shared the information.

Allegedly, the company’s biometric system allows for and resulted in the employee’s biometric information being shared with third parties, along with the biometric information of many other employees. Allegedly, this information was shared without permission with vendors for timekeeping, data storage, and payroll purposes.

Biometric Privacy Violation 

The biometric info violation class action lawsuit says that Nep never informed the plaintiff or other workers in writing about the fact that their information would be collected, stored, used, shared, or published.

The Nep Electronics BIPA class action lawsuit says that BIPA requires private entities, like companies, to inform people if they are going to collect their biometric data, and receive a written release to do so.

In addition, the BIPA class action lawsuit says that private entities are also required to inform the person whose information is to be collected of the “specific purpose and the length of term for which such biometric identifiers or biometric information is being collected, stored, and used.” Allegedly, BIPA requires this information to be provided in writing.

Additionally, BIPA allegedly requires private entities to publish their guidelines for how they destroy the records of biometric identifiers.

However, the plaintiff says that Nep did not comply with these requirements when collecting his biometric information or the information of other employees. The plaintiff says that he and other employees were injured by this collection of data in a way that violated the law because the law itself establishes that the collection of this data without the proper processes is in itself and injury, as explained by the Electronics Frontier Foundation. 

Allegedly, if biometric information is compromised, an individual is exposed to fraud and identity theft. According to the BIPA class action lawsuit, if fraud or identity theft occurs with information like credit card numbers, a person can recover from that because they can, for example, get a new credit card. However, in the case of identity theft with biometric information, the plaintiff says there is no recovering because the information is inherently tied to the individual.

Other companies have faced similar lawsuits over allegedly violating the Biometric Information Privacy Act, including a privacy case against Whole Foods and a fingerprint case against Hilton Hotel.

The Nep Electronics BIPA Violation Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 2019CH09362, in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois County Department, Chancery Division.

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.