A Northern District of Illinois judge issued a memorandum opinion and order partially dismissing a complaint alleging Microsoft violated the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act (BIPA).
According to the ordder, Microsoft provides a cloud computing and storage service called Azure. The plaintiff provided her fingerprint to that service via her workplace for timekeeping purposes; the plaintiff alleges that Microsoft never provided her with a release that acknowledged its collection, use, and dissemination of her biometric data despite the plaintiff’s willing submission of her fingerprint to Paychex, the service that relies on Average.
Microsoft won dismissal of two claims against it. The plaintiff’s allegation that the tech giant violated § 15(b) of BIPA was dismissed because the plaintiff did not allege that Microsoft obtained the plaintiff’s data through trade. A § 15(d) claim was dismissed because the plaintiff failed to allege that Microsoft had disseminated the data.
According to the memorandum, the plaintiff sought to remand two other counts against Microsoft to state court; Microsoft agreed to the change. The judge’s order will send the claims to Cook County state court.
The plaintiff is represented by McGuire Law PC, while Microsoft is representing by Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.
