BELLEVILLE — McDonald's and the majority of its franchisees throughout Illinois are facing a class action alleging they mishandled the biometric data of their workers.
Allison Arthur, Kyle Arthur, Makyela Daniels, Tiffany Gomez, LaShunda Hicks, KY' Aron Manning, Brett Prather and David Truetner, individually and on behalf of all other similarly situated, filed a complaint in the St. Clair County Circuit Court against McDonald's USA LLC and numerous McDonald's franchises throughout Illinois, alleging violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The lawsuit is over 2,000 pages long.
According to the class action complaint, each of the plaintiffs are former employees of McDonald's and worked at various McDonald's franchises in Illinois. They allege that McDonald's Corporation and its franchises "mishandled" their workers' biometric information "across the McDonald's System in Illinois" through the use of the company's "proprietary software."
The plaintiffs further allege that their biometric data collection, storage and usage by McDonald's violates BIPA because they were never provided with notice or gave McDonald's written consent to collect and retain their biometric information.
The plaintiffs claim McDonald's has been "toying" with the collection and use of its employees' biometric data since 2003 while "testing the technology" outside the U.S. prior to implementing the technology in this country and require their franchises to use the company's system-wide program which "mishandles" employees' biometric information in violation of BIPA.
The plaintiffs seek monetary and all other appropriate relief. They are represented by John Driscoll of The Driscoll Firm LLC.
St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 20-L-0891