in Newswire January 21, 2019

White Castle Hit with Class Action Over Alleged Violations of Illinois Biometric Privacy Law

Last Updated on January 21, 2019

Cothron v. White Castle System, Inc. et al.

Filed: January 18, 2019 ◆§ 1:19-cv-00382

White Castle and Cross Match Technologies face a proposed class action in IL over the collection, storage and dissemination of employee fingerprints.

Defendant(s)

Cross Match Technologies, Inc. White Castle System, Inc. White Castle

Law(s)

Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act

State(s)

Illinois

A proposed class action filed in early December 2018 and removed to Illinois federal court alleges White Castle and its employee database provider, Cross Match Technologies, overstepped state biometric privacy law.

According to the lawsuit, the defendants violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by scanning and storing employees’ fingerprints for payroll purposes without informing workers in writing of the purpose and length of time their fingerprints would be collected, stored, and disseminated. Further, the defendants, the case says, failed to provide employees with both a publicly available retention schedule outlining the specifics of the permanent destruction of their biometric data and a written release.

The case argues that the defendants’ alleged BIPA violations put White Castle employees at an increased risk of identity theft.

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Last Updated on January 21, 2019 — 4:01 PM