Class Action Claims Envoy Air Violated Illinois Privacy Law with Employee Fingerprint Scanning

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Envoy Air, Inc. faces a proposed class action in which a former employee claims the American Airlines subsidiary scanned workers’ fingerprints and hands for timekeeping purposes without making proper disclosures and obtaining permission to do so.

Alleging violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the lawsuit out of Cook County Circuit Court claims Envoy Air workers were never properly informed of the purpose and length of time for which their biometric information—i.e., fingerprints and handprints—would be collected, stored and used.

Moreover, workers were not informed in writing that their biometric information would be collected and did not provide written authorization for the defendant to collect, capture, or otherwise obtain their sensitive data, according to the suit.

Still further, the lawsuit claims Envoy failed to comply with the BIPA’s requirement to develop a publicly available retention schedule and guidelines for permanently destroying employees’ fingerprint data, leaving the plaintiff to wonder whether Envoy will ever permanently delete her sensitive biometric information.

The plaintiff, who worked for Envoy as a passenger service agent between July 2000 and February 2017 and then from June 2017 through September 2017, says that she and other workers were required over the past five years to have their fingerprints and handprints scanned for timekeeping purposes. While the plaintiff initially clocked in and out of the defendant’s timekeeping system by entering her employee ID and placing only her fingertips on a panel to be scanned, Envoy later installed different biometric timeclocks that required workers to place their entire hand on the panel to be scanned, according to the suit.

The plaintiff says she is uncertain of whether the defendant captured just her fingerprints or her handprint given she was not provided with any information regarding how the timeclocks worked.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone who worked for Envoy and had their fingerprints, handprints, biometric identifiers and/or biometric information collected, captured, received, or otherwise obtained, used, stored, or possessed by Envoy in Illinois between December 23, 2015 and July 18, 2019.

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