Illinois Justices Eye Union Preemption in Hand Scan Privacy Suit

Illinois Supreme Court justices on Wednesday mulled whether federal collective bargaining law prevents a union member from pursuing state biometric privacy claims against his employer.

The oral argument called into question the limits of lawsuits under the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), which has been at the center of a wave of litigation against companies over their collection of employees’ fingerprints. BIPA prohibits companies from collecting or storing a person’s biometric data without providing notice and obtaining informed written consent.

Former Roosevelt University employee William Walton asserts his employer violated BIPA by collecting and storing Walton’s hand geometry data ...