A $228 million judgment has been entered against BNSF Railway, which plans to appeal the ruling
In what is believed to be the first jury verdict related to Illinois’ strict biometrics privacy law, a $228 million judgment has been entered against BNSF Railway in a class-action lawsuit over the railroad’s collection of fingerprint data.
“This is the first example of a jury standing up and saying, yes, this is important information that’s highly sensitive and worth protecting,” said David Gerbie, an attorney representing the truck driver who brought the suit.In the federal lawsuit, Richard Rogers, a truck driver for a third-party company, said BNSF requires drivers to use fingerprints and “related biometric information” to access the railroad’s intermodal facilities.
The class-action lawsuit covered about 45,000 members. After the judgment, entered Wednesday, each could get about $5,000.“We disagree with and are disappointed by the jury’s verdict and think the decision reflects a misunderstanding of key issues,” the railroad said in a statement. Illinois placed restrictions on businesses’ collection, storage and use of biometric data when the legislature passed the Biometric Privacy Information Act in 2008. At the time the law was considered the toughest in the nation, requiring written notification and prior consent, prohibiting profiting from the data and allowing people to sue over allegations of violations.
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