Supreme Court of Illinois February 17 Published a resolution , according to which the network of fast food restaurants White Castle can be held accountable for every case when the company scanned the fingerprints of its employees Without their consent. The court may prescribe a multi -billion dollar fine of burgers to the production giant – up to $ 17 billion.
In the state of Illinois from any companies, permission is required before collecting or transmitting human biometric data. The relevant law has been in force since 2008. The penalty for non -compliance with this requirement is from 1000 to 5,000 dollars for each violation, depending on the circumstances.
The case excited by a woman from Illinois, who got a job in the Burgerian White Castle in 2004, is connected with the use of fingerprints for access to payment receipts and computers of the company, which, according to her, were introduced shortly after the employment of a woman.
The cornerstone of this case is the answer to the question: do private organizations bear responsibility for each case when they collected biometric data of a person without his consent? According to court documents, White Castle received an official permission to use fingerprints of its employees only in 2018, ten years after signing the relevant bill.
In the court, White Castle recognizes its responsibility only for the primary collection of biometric data of its employees. This is a one -time process of entering a fingerprint to the company database. The accusation insists that the fine should be recovered for every case when the employee directly used this imprint – that is, he ran a finger on the scanner to enter the work or gain access to the internal system.
Over the ten years of such “use” biometrics, taking into account the staff of 10 thousand employees, the company had a lot to put it mildly. Any hopes that the court would solve the problem in favor of the corporation were left after the judges considered the interpretation of the White Castle law incorrect. According to the company, as a result of this decision, it can pay a fine of up to $ 17 billion.
It is likely that such a fine will become unbearable for White Castle. In this regard, the court also suggested that the Illinois Legislative Assembly revise the current law regarding fines. Perhaps in the future this will protect corporations from excessive penalties, which are more associated with the wrong interpretation of laws.
The case of White Castle is not the first when a private company violates the rules of confidentiality regarding biometry. For example, in 2020, META (then Facebook) paid $ 650 million to resolve a collective claim. The thing is that the company applied its software for recognizing persons to residents of Illinois without their consent.