Class Action Claims Mission Care of Illinois Scanned Workers’ Fingerprints Without Proper Notice, Consent

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges Mission Care of Illinois, LLC has run afoul of a state privacy law by requiring workers to scan their fingerprints for timekeeping purposes without first providing requisite disclosures and obtaining consent.

According to the 17-page case, the defendant, who also does business as Abbott EMS, has failed to satisfy the strict requirements of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), a state law that governs a private company’s use of residents’ biometric data, including fingerprints, retina and iris scans, voiceprints and scans of hand and face geometry.

The lawsuit claims Mission Care has violated the BIPA by failing to:

• Inform workers in writing of the specific purpose and length of time for which their fingerprints are being collected, stored and used;
• Provide a publicly available retention schedule and guidelines for the permanent destruction of the data; and
• Receive a written release from workers to collect, store, disseminate or otherwise use their fingerprints.

The case was filed by a former employee who says she was required to scan her fingerprint when clocking in and out of Mission Care’s timekeeping system. According to the complaint, the emergency transport service never informed the plaintiff or others of its intention to use their biometric information or of its data retention policy, and never asked for their consent to use their fingerprints.

The defendant’s failure to comply with the BIPA has exposed its workers to “serious and irreversible privacy risks,” the lawsuit says, stressing that biometric information is unlike traditional ID badges or timecards in that it cannot be changed if compromised.

“No amount of time or money can compensate Plaintiff if her biometric data is compromised by the lax procedures through which Defendant captured, stored, used, and disseminated Plaintiff’s and other similarly-situated individuals’ biometrics, and Plaintiff would not have provided her biometric data to any Defendant if she had known that they would retain such information for an indefinite period of time without her consent,” the complaint reads.

The suit looks to represent anyone who was enrolled in Mission Care’s biometric timekeeping system and subsequently used a biometric timeclock while employed by or working for the defendant in Illinois during the applicable statutory period.

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