Illinois legislators consider amending BIPA as Facebook lobbies

Illinois legislators are considering an amendment to the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) which would exempt businesses from the law’s notice and consent requirements under a broad variety of conditions, The Verge reports.

The amendment would render BIPA inapplicable to businesses collecting biometrics for employment, human resources, fraud prevention, or security reasons, as well as those using biometrics for non-commercial purposes. It would also not apply to business using them for commercial purposes, should they protect biometric data as well they do other sensitive data.

Facebook, which is currently facing a class-action suit under BIPA, has made donations to the four sponsors of the amendment of $5,500 over the past six months, according to public records. The Illinois Chamber of Commerce’s Tech Council, which counts Facebook as a member, is also actively supporting the amendment.

A previous effort was made to amend BIPA in 2016, which The Verge refers to as an attempt “to gut the bill,” and which Facebook supported at the time. Shortly after that attempt failed, the social media giant claimed in court that BIPA is unconstitutional.

Article Topics

biometric data  |  biometrics  |  BIPA  |  Facebook  |  legislation