A Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago recently issued a final approval for a $1.5 million settlement between L.A. Tan Enterprises Inc. and a class of the franchise’s customers who claim it failed to properly handle their biometric information. This is the first settlement reached under the Biometric Information Privacy Act requiring companies to gain consent before collecting a person’s biometric data. The lawsuit claimed that L.A. Tan did not obtain written consent from customers to use data obtained through fingerprint technology, rather than key fob identification. The settlement states that L.A. Tan will use the $1.5 million to put a process in place to comply with the Illinois statute or destroy all biometric data and pay each individual a check of $125. Other similar suits include accusations that California companies used facial recognition software to collect biometric data.

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