Prairie State Wire

House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Burr Ridge) is promoting a bill that would amend the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) of 2008.

Those amendments would include steps to protect small businesses from a steady stream of class action lawsuits.

One of Durkin’s concerns is that the act has created a “cottage industry for a select group of lawyers to file class action lawsuits against big and small employers and nonprofit agencies,” said Durkin in an interview with the QC Times. He also has concerns that the language may need updating.

The proposed legislation comes in the wake of Facebook reaching a $650 million settlement with more than 1 million platform users over privacy issues, though Durkin insists it’s the “small guys” being hit the hardest by the growing number of BIPA suits.

House Bill 559, which has already been advanced by a House judiciary committee, seeks to change that.

As it is, BIPA is one of the strictest privacy laws in the country, requiring Illinois business owners that collect biometric information to have strict standards in place for the personal information they collect.

Among other things, the business is required to make the employee or customer aware and obtain a written release from the individual if biometric information is being collected. The business is also banned from sharing the information with a third-party

House Bill 559 would require an affected individual (the aggrieved party) to provide written notice of a violation to the business entity, or employer with a 30-day deadline to fix the problems. The individual or organization named in that notice would have to fix the violation within that 30-day period.

“We think this is fair,” said Durkin. “This is what I believe is an appropriate balance between the rights of privacy and the employees, and also what I think is a fair shake for employers.”