CHICAGO _ The family of a teenager whose fingerprint data was collected in 2014 when he bought a season pass to Six Flags Great America had the right to sue the amusement park company under an Illinois privacy law, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.
The case is being closely watched by tech giants such as Facebook, who have pushed back against the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. The law requires companies collecting information such as facial, fingerprint and iris scans to obtain prior consent from consumers or employees, detailing how they'll use the data and how long the records will be kept. It also allows private citizens to sue, while other states let only the attorney general bring a lawsuit.
The opinion, which overturns an appeals court ruling in favor of Six Flags, has the potential to effect biometrics lawsuits playing out in courtrooms across the country.
The Illinois law is one of the strictest of its kind in the nation and has turned the state into a hotbed of lawsuits over alleged misuses of biometric data. Privacy experts say protecting that type of information is critical because, unlike a credit card or bank account number, it's permanent.
Companies across a wide range of industries have faced allegations in Illinois involving improper use of biometrics, from tech giants such as Facebook, Google, Snapchat and Shutterfly to Chicago-based United Airlines, grocery company Roundy's and InterContinental Hotels' Kimpton chain.
Even before the public became more aware of their online privacy following Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal last year, companies were altering their behavior in Illinois, likely to adhere to the law.
Nest, a maker of smart thermostats and doorbells, sells a doorbell with a camera that can recognize visitors by their faces. However, Nest, owned by Google parent Alphabet, does not offer that feature in Illinois because of the biometrics law. Google's Arts & Culture app rolled out a new feature in late 2017 that matched users' uploaded selfies with portraits or faces depicted in works of art, but it wasn't available in Illinois, likely due to the state's biometrics law.
