Last week, we outlined the lawsuits against TikTok by New York, California, and North Carolina, that followed in the footsteps of Nebraska, Nevada (which filed suit against TikTok in February of 2024), and Indiana, which filed suit against TikTok in 2022. Since last week, at least 11 more states have joined the fray, including
Illinois
Kronos Biometric Information Class Action Settlement Preliminarily Approved for $15.3M
Kronos, Inc., has agreed to (and a federal judge has preliminarily approved) a $15.3 million settlement to resolve claims that it violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting biometric information from thousands of workers through its time clock that uses fingerprints for timekeeping.
The plaintiffs filed a class action suit against Kronos…
Privacy Tip #320 – 2021 Goes Down as Top Year for Fraud
2021 will go down in our minds as many things, including the year in which more people reported fraud and the highest dollar amount of fraud losses in history. Not a great statistic.
According to the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2021 (the Data Book), the FTC received 5.7 million reports from…
Manufacturer Rents a Robot to Replace Laborers
Polar Manufacturing has been making metal hinges, locks, and brackets in Chicago for over 100 years. While some of the machines in their manufacturing facilities date back to the 1950s, Polar started using a robot employee to meet rising product demand during a shortage of workers. The robot arm performs a simple job: lifting a…
Biometric Information Privacy Programs
Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) continues to be a problem for employers who are using biometric information such as palm readers or fingerprint timekeeping software.
This week, waste management company GFL Environmental Services USA Inc. (GFL) agreed to settle a proposed class action case filed by some of its employees alleging violation of BIPA.…
Maine and North Dakota Are Latest States to Adopt the NAIC Data Security Model Law
Two more state governors, those of Maine and North Dakota, have signed bills into law that adopt the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) data security model law (Model Law). Maine and North Dakota join several other states that have already passed similar laws. Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin have similar…
Vehicle Inspections in Multiple States Disrupted by Malware
Applus Technologies, Inc., a vendor of multiple state Departments of Motor Vehicles that assists states with vehicle inspections, recently announced that its systems have been affected by malware, disrupting motor vehicle inspections in Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, and Utah. As a result of the outage, vehicle inspections have not been able…
Consumer Reports Releases Model State Privacy Act – More States Introduce Consumer Privacy Legislation
This week, Consumer Reports published a Model State Privacy Act. The Consumer advocacy organization proposed model legislation “to ensure that companies are required to honor consumers’ privacy.” The model legislation is similar to the California Consumer Privacy Act, but seeks to protect consumer privacy rights “by default.” Some additional provisions of the model law…
Canon Hit with Data Breach Class Action Suit by Former and Current Employees
Canon U.S.A. Inc. (Canon) was hit with a class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York this week for the ransomware attack that exposed current and former employees’ personal information in November 2020. The plaintiffs reside in Ohio, New York, Florida and Illinois, and allege that Canon was…
Home Depot Settles Data Breach Multi-state Enforcement Action for $17.5 Million
Home Depot has agreed to settle a multi-state enforcement action by 46 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. arising from the data breach that occurred in 2014. Home Depot has agreed to pay $17.5 million to put the enforcement action behind it. The investigation was led by the Attorneys General of Connecticut, Illinois and Texas.
The…