EDWARDSVILLE — Employees for a publishing company claim their privacy rights were violated through biometric-enabled technology.
Michael Koch filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself and others in the Third Judicial Circuit Court on Oct. 16 against Bass Company.
Koch, who was employed by the defendant from 2019 to 2023, claims that during his employment, he was required to clock in and out of work using facial recognition. He claims the devices collected users' biometric data and the defendants never sought any written consent regarding the collection and storage of the biometric data.
The defendant also failed to make any written biometrics retention, storage or destruction policy publicly available, according to the suit.
Koch claims the defendant violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) and failed to comply with the law.
BIPA requires that private entities that are in possession of biometric data have a publicly available retention and destruction policy, according to the suit.
"Plaintiff and other Class members have had their 'biometric identifiers,' namely their facial geometry characteristics, or information derived therefrom...collected, captured, or otherwise obtained by Defendant," the complaint states.
Koch alleges that by capturing, storing, collecting, disseminating and using the plaintiff and the class members' biometrics, the defendant denied them their rights as set forth in BIPA.
Koch is seeking statutory damages with pre- and post-judgment interest. He is represented by John Hipskind and Brady McAninch of Hipskind & McAninch in Belleville.
Madison County Circuit Court case number: 2023-LA-001426