EAST ST. LOUIS – Joshua Gaertner of Randolph County seeks millions in class damages from photographers who sold images of his graduation to his mother.
Gaertner alleged invasion of his biometric privacy in a lawsuit filed at U.S. district court on July 14 against two Texas companies and an Illinois company all doing business as Grad Images.
Gaertner’s counsel John Driscoll of Puerto Rico claimed the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act prohibits private profit from biometric information.
Driscoll claimed the defendants allow graduates or anyone else to locate face print matched photos through its website by searching name, school, and graduation year.
He added that they photographed Gaertner’s university graduation in Edwardsville on May 6.
“Gaertner’s mother, an Illinois resident, purchased one or more of those photographs through the Grad Images website,” he wrote.
Driscoll claimed Gaertner wasn’t informed that defendants would profit from his image.
He claimed they should have stated the purpose of their collection, should have received a release, and should have published retention schedules and guidelines for destruction.
Driscoll listed 56 Illinois high schools, colleges, and universities Grad Images has photographed.
He claimed hundreds of professionals take two million photographs at 6,000 events a year.
He sought statutory damages of $1,000 for each negligent violation of privacy law and $5,000 for each intentional and reckless violation.
Driscoll proposed class certification for all Illinois residents whose biometric information or identifiers were collected, captured, purchased, or otherwise obtained or profited from by the defendants.
Matthew Limoli of Driscoll’s firm in North Carolina also represents Gaertner.
The court clerk randomly assigned District Judge Stephen McGlynn.