Google lobbies to change BIPA

Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., is lobbying to roll back photo provisions in Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), according to a Bloomberg report.

BIPA is considered to be the most comprehensive biometric privacy law in the U.S., as it is the only law that allows people the right to sue companies for using biometric data without consent.

According to Bloomberg, Google is lobbying to exempt photos from the Illinois law during this current attempt to amend the legislation. The world’s largest Internet search engine claims that photos do not belong under BIPA because their inclusion would render the law unconstitutional.

Google’s lobbying effort comes at a time when the firm is concurrently fighting a lawsuit in the state that claims that it violated the privacy of millions of users by gathering and storing biometric data without their consent.

The next stage towards amending the legislation will occur when the bill goes to committee on April 26. If the bill passes committee, it will need to go to both houses of assembly for approval and also obtain the governor’s signature.

Article Topics

biometric data  |  Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA)  |  biometrics  |  Google  |  legislation  |  privacy