In early January, the Biometric Privacy Act was proposed by bipartisan lawmakers, which would require entities that possess biometric information or identifiers to obtain specific consumer consent for collecting, capturing, purchasing, or training such information, and would be privately actionable, as well. Written policies would need to be developed by those who possess biometric information and written consent received before collecting, capturing, purchasing, or trading the biometrics. The private right of action, which is similar to that found in Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), also requires that covered entities safely store, transmit and protect the biometric identifiers or information from disclosure.
