CHICAGO — An employee has filed a class action lawsuit against Hegewisch Development Corp. and its subsidiaries, citing alleged violation of the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
Lead plaintiff Fallon White filed a complaint July 30 in Cook County Circuit Court, claiming the defendants failed to exercise care in protecting employees' personal information.
According to the complaint, White and the other class members allegedly were not informed in writing of the purpose and length of time for which their fingerprints were being collected, stored, disseminated and used by the defendants or a schedule for permanent destruction of the biometric data.
The lawsuit also claims the defendants shared the fingerprint data with third parties.
White claims the defendants' failure to destroy the biometric data heightened the risk for identity theft, and the defendants failed to obtain written releases from the employees before collecting their fingerprints.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks a judgment against the defendants, certification of the class action, statutory damages of $5,000 for each reckless violation and $1,000 for each negligent violation, injunctive relief, attorneys' fees and costs, litigation expenses, interest and further relief as the court deems just. It is represented by Ryan Stephan, James Zouras and Haley Jenkins of Stephen Zouras LLP in Chicago.
Cook County Circuit Court case number 18-CH-09599