A Great Wolf Lodge worker has filed a class action lawsuit against her employer over claims that the hotel chain violates Illinois law by requiring employees to scan their fingerprints to track their work time.
Allegedly, the company violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by not asking for workers’ consent to collect the information and by failing to inform them of how that data would be collected, stored, and disposed of.
The Great Wolf Lodge class action lawsuit was filed by Ashley Allen, who says that she worked at an Illinois’ Great Wolf Lodge through 2019. She says that Great Wolf employees are required to scan their fingerprints at the beginning and end of each shift, to record work times.
According to Allen, Great Wolf Lodge’s collection and storing of the fingerprint information violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) in a number of ways.
The law requires a party collecting biometric information to ask for the consent of the individual before collecting biometric information, which Allen says Great Wolf did not do. She goes on to claim that the BIPA requires organizations collecting biometric information to inform them about the purpose of collecting the information.
In addition, companies reportedly must inform individuals about the organization’s policy around retaining and disposing of the fingerprint data. According to Allen, her employer did not provide her or other employees with the legally-required information about how their biometric information would be collected, stored, and disposed of.
She explains that other biometric identifiers include retina and iris scans, voiceprints, hand scans, and face geometry information.
The Great Wolf Lodge class action claims that, by collecting biometric information in a way that violated the law, Great Wolf Lodge put their employees at risk for injury. Allegedly, these injuries could include identity theft, fraud, financial injury, and inconvenience, among others.
The Great Wolf Lodge fingerprint scan class action lawsuit notes that biometric information is valuable to criminals because it can be used in identity theft.
Exposure of biometric information can allegedly be particularly damaging because it cannot be changed like a password, credit card number, or key card can be.
The indoor water park class action lawsuit argues that Great Wolf Lodge knew or should have known about BIPA’s requirements but violated the law nonetheless. The plaintiff also claims that the company knew or should have known that theft of biometric information puts individuals at serious risk of loss of privacy, identity theft, and injury, but put workers at risk nonetheless.
Allen notes that, since the 2000s, the use of biometric information to record hours worked has become increasingly popular. Though she acknowledges that using fingerprints and other biometric identifiers for timekeeping does have its advantages, it is associated with many risks.
Allegedly, these biometric risks became well known in 2007, when a retailer of fingerprint scanners filed for bankruptcy.
According to Allen, employees whose biometric data was collected were shocked to discover that their information could be sold to third parties after the fingerprint scanner company closed.
The Great Wolf Lodge class action claims that this event spurred a conversation about the possible privacy risks associated with biometric information, which in turn prompted Illinois legislators to enact BIPA in 2008.
Allen goes on to note that the BIPA specifically includes provisions that, in the context of biometric information collected as a part of an employee’s work, an employer must provide a written release that is then “executed by an employee as a condition of employment” in order to collect biometric information.
The Great Wolf Lodge hotel class action lawsuit notes that the BIPA allows individuals who have had their biometric information collected in violation of the law to collect up to $1,000 per negligent violation of the law and up to $5,000 per willful violation of the law.
She seeks compensation on behalf of herself and all other similarly affected Great Wolf Lodge workers.
Has your employer ever collected your biometric information? Tell us about your experience in the comments below.
Allen is represented by David Fish, John Kunze, and Mara Baltabols of The Fish Law Firm PC.
The Great Wolf Lodge Fingerprint Scan BIPA Violation Class Action Lawsuit is Ashley Allen v. GWR Illinois Property Owner LLC, et al., Case No. 2020-CH-02983, in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois.
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