Businesses in Illinois are paying lots of money to settle class action lawsuits thanks to an Illinois law called the Biometric Information Privacy Act.

Businesses in Illinois are paying lots of money to settle class action lawsuits thanks to an Illinois law called the Biometric Information Privacy Act.

In this week's Legal Issues in the News, the University of Illinois College of Law's Faye Jones, takes a look at biometric privacy law and social media. 

Electronic privacy advocates are praising a ruling from the Illinois Supreme Court on Friday. The justices held that people can sue just for having biometric information collected without consent.

The Illinois Supreme Court on Tuesday heard its first-ever case on Illinois’ tough biometric privacy law, which imposes restrictions on the collection of things like retina scans and fingerprints.