2021 Year in Review: Biometric and AI Litigation

Read on for CPW's highlights of the year's most significant events concerning biometric litigation, as well as our predictions for what 2022 may bring. One of the most critical consumer privacy statutes for biometric litigation has been Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act ("BIPA"), which regulates the collection, processing, disclosure, and security of the biometric information of Illinois residents. BIPA protects the "biometric information" of Illinois residents, which is any information based on "biometric identifiers" that identifies a specific person--regardless of how it is captured, converted, stored, or shared. Biometric identifiers are "a retina or iris scan, fingerprint, voiceprint, or scan of hand or face geometry." BIPA has found itself to be one of the most frequent targets for class actions, as it includes a private right of action with liquidated statutory damages, unlike many other data privacy statutes.