District court declines to reconsider BIPA accrual ruling

Courts Privacy, Cyber Risk & Data Security BIPA Biometric Data Illinois Consumer Protection

On August 14, an Illinois District Court denied in part and granted in part a tech company’s motion to dismiss a class-action suit that alleged violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”). The complaint alleged that the tech giant failed to safeguard the facial data in its photo service as closely as it protected other types of data and violated its own policy governing biometric identifier storage. BIPA requires companies to store, transmit, and protect biometric data using the reasonable standard of care within the company’s industry and to protect that data in either the same or more protective manner as it protects other types of confidential data. 

In permitting the complaint to move forward, the court noted that the defendant’s internal documents allegedly show that it made minimal investment in its photo service and made no attempt to identify flaws in the system. Further, the court referred to allegations in the complaint that the defendant devotes fewer resources and staffing to protecting the photo service. The court noted that the allegations were sufficient because the lack of protocols made consumers’ critical metadata “vulnerable to attacks.”

In granting the motion related to violation of the defendant’s policies, the court noted that plaintiffs did not show they were personally injured by the alleged violation. The defendant’s policy requires it to delete files for accounts that have been abandoned for two years, for which image recognition was disabled, or where user deleted their photo account. However, the court concluded that the complaint did not allege that plaintiffs did any of these actions.