General Intelligence
A Simple Way to Measure Whether Your Privacy Law Is Worth a Damn
States still haven’t matched Illinois’ 2008 biometric privacy law
Though most Americans have likely never heard of it, Illinois’ 12-year-old Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) has proven itself to be the country’s strongest legal barrier against the unfettered collection of fingerprint, iris, voice, and facial recognition data.
Other states have taken notice. California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) included biometric data in its broad set of privacy protections when it went into effect in 2020, and just last week Virginia passed its own data privacy act, which experts say is largely modeled on California’s. New York and Maryland also introduced new bills in 2021 specifically targeting biometrics data, each of which closely echoes Illinois’ law.
Washington and Texas have also passed privacy laws modeled on Illinois’, in 2017 and 2009 respectively.
BIPA’s strongest accountability measure allows citizens to pursue lawsuits against companies illegally collecting biometric data. The provision, called a “private right of action,” is the mechanism used to take Google, Facebook, and Apple to court over their facial recognition data collection practices. It’s…
