Enova Facing Biometric Privacy Lawsuit in Illinois Over Fingerprint Scanning Practices

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Fintech company Enova International, Inc. has been hit with a proposed class action over its alleged failure to provide statutory disclosures and obtain consent before collecting workers’ fingerprint data for timekeeping purposes.

The 19-page lawsuit alleges Enova has exposed employees to “serious and irreversible privacy risks,” including identity theft and fraud, by failing to properly adhere to the disclosure and consent requirements set by the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).

“For example, if [a] biometric database is hacked, breached, or otherwise exposed – such as in the recent Equifax, Uber, Facebook/Cambridge Analytica, and Marriott data breaches or misuses – employees have no means by which to prevent identity theft, unauthorized tracking, and other improper or unlawful use of this highly personal and private information,” the complaint reads.

According to the case, the defendant required workers to scan their fingerprints to clock in and out of work. Before collecting this sensitive biometric information, however, Enova allegedly failed to:

• Properly inform workers in writing of the specific purpose and length of time for which their biometric data—i.e., fingerprints—would be collected, stored, disseminated and used;
• Provide a publicly available retention schedule and guidelines for the destruction of employees’ biometric information; and
• Receive a written release from workers allowing the company to collect, store, disseminate or otherwise use their fingerprints.

The plaintiff says she worked in Enova’s Gurnee, Illinois location as a customer service rep between May 2018 and September 2020 and was required to scan her fingerprints despite having never signed a written release authorizing the collection of her biometric data or receiving proper disclosures regarding the use of her sensitive biometric information.

According to the suit, the plaintiff has been “continuously and repeatedly” exposed to the privacy risks created by Enova’s violations of the BIPA and would not have provided her private biometric information had she known it would be retained “for an indefinite period of time without her consent.”

The plaintiff looks to represent any one who was enrolled in the defendant’s biometric timekeeping system and used a biometric timeclock while working for Enova in Illinois during the applicable statutory period.

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