In January 2019, the Illinois Supreme Court upheld consumers' rights to sue companies forcollecting their fingerprints without explicit consent. Thisprecedent-setting case, Rosenbach v. Six Flags Entertainment Corp,was the first to extend the interpretation of the IllinoisBiometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) holding that individualsdo not need to prove they were actually harmed by the misuse oftheir biometric information—only that their rights under the lawwere violated.

The Rosenbach interpretation of the Illinois BIPA givesindividuals more agency to act if they suspect their personalinformation is being used without their consent. As a result, theRosenbach decision may dramatically and fundamentally change theway that companies think about, use, and collect biometric datafrom both their customers and employees.