Sage Software Hit with Biometric Information Privacy Class Action in Illinois

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A proposed class action claims Sage Software has violated an Illinois privacy law by collecting and storing the fingerprints of its clients’ employees without first obtaining consent or providing proper disclosures.

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The 13-page case alleges Sage Software, which sells cloud-based timekeeping and attendance tracking solutions to employers, has violated several provisions of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). 

Enacted in 2008 as a means to protect Illinois residents’ unique, unchangeable biometric identifiers, the BIPA states that private companies must secure an individual’s informed written consent to collect and store such information, the suit relays. Companies are also required to disclose the purpose for collecting biometric data, how long it will be retained and when it will be destroyed, the complaint says.

According to the filing, Sage Software has failed to meet these statutory requirements before it captures Illinois employees’ fingerprints through the biometric-enabled technology it offers clients before then storing the data on its servers.

The plaintiff, a former Oxford Hotels & Resorts employee who was required to use the defendants’ biometric systems by scanning his fingerprint, says Sage Software never notified workers that it was collecting such information, much less obtained their permission to do so.

Per the case, Sage Software collects, stores and uses the biometric data generated from its timekeeping systems previously used by Oxford Hotels in 2017 and 2018 and currently used by other clients throughout Illinois “to conduct employee management, authentication, and timekeeping services for them.”

“By the time BIPA passed through the Illinois legislature in mid-2008, many companies who had experimented using employees’ biometric data as an authentication method stopped doing so,” the filing says. “However, Sage Software failed to respond to the change in Illinois law governing the collection and use of biometric data despite that it had been in effect for over a decade.”

The lawsuit looks to cover anyone in Illinois who had their fingerprints, handprints or faceprints collected, captured, stored, transmitted, disseminated or otherwise used by or on behalf of Sage Software during the applicable statute of limitations period.

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