Peri Formwork Employee Fingerprint Scans Violated Ill. Privacy Law, Lawsuit Says

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A proposed class action claims Peri Formwork Systems, Inc. has violated employees’ privacy rights by collecting their fingerprint data without adhering to the disclosure requirements of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).

According to the lawsuit out of Cook County Circuit Court, the formwork and scaffolding systems manufacturer requires employees to scan their fingerprints each time they clock in and out of work. Unlike traditional ID badges or time cards, which can be replaced if stolen or compromised, a fingerprint is a unique biometric identifier that, if compromised, can expose an employee to “serious and irreversible privacy risks,” the suit argues.

“For example,” the complaint reads, “if a database containing fingerprints or other sensitive, proprietary biometric data is hacked, breached, or otherwise exposed—like in the recent Equifax, Facebook/Cambridge Analytica, and Suprema data breaches—employees have no means by which to prevent identity theft, unauthorized tracking or other unlawful or improper use of this highly personal and private information.”

It’s for this reason that the Illinois legislature enacted in 2008 the BIPA to govern companies who collect, obtain, store and use state residents’ biometric information, such as fingerprints, retina and iris scans, voiceprints, and scans of hand and face geometry, the case says.

The lawsuit claims, however that Peri Framework Systems has failed to comply with the BIPA’s statutory requirements before collecting, storing and using employees’ fingerprint data.

More specifically, the suit claims the defendant has failed to:

The plaintiff, who began working at Peri’s Calumet Park, Illinois yard in February 2020, says the company switched from a traditional timeclock to scanning workers’ fingerprints for timekeeping purposes about two weeks after he was hired.

According to the suit, Peri’s failure to adhere to the BIPA’s disclosure and consent requirements has “continuously and repeatedly” exposed the plaintiff to a heightened risk of identity theft without any recourse. Per the complaint, “[n]o amount of time or money” could compensate the plaintiff if his biometric data is compromised as a result of the defendant’s “lax procedures” in collecting, storing, using and disseminating his fingerprint data.

The plaintiff says he would never have provided his biometric information to the defendant had he known the company “would retain such information for an indefinite period of time without his consent.”

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