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Comment by Scubabear68 | Hacker News Reader

What’s interesting here is that the data was not collected secretly per se. White Castle used finger prints to unlock computers and access pay stubs, so employees had to know what was going on. The ruling is that they did not ask for and receive consent from those employees for years. The employee in question had been having her finger print scanned since 2004, and they only asked for consent in 2018.

Which begs the question, if they asked and an employee said “no”, what happens? Are they fired? Banned from register work?

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This - if it requires "consent" but not "informed and voluntary consent", the law is worthless and just increases the amount of paperwork.

If an actual alternative has to be provided, that's a very sensible law. Biometrics can't be revoked, and every use puts them at risk, so making sure people aren't forced to let employers collect their biometrics is a good idea.

Edit: If I read it right, the "consent" is required in the pure paperwork sense, unfortunately. That means for employees it only prevents biometrics from being used covertly.

However, it still has value for non-employees, and the "written" aspect is particularly important here. A supermarket for example can't use biometrics to track people for advertising or theft protection purposes, because they'd first need to stop them at the entrance so they can sign a waiver. No cheating out of it with a small sticker "by entering these premises, you consent" in some corner.

> Which begs the question, if they asked and an employee said “no”, what happens? Are they fired? Banned from register work?

Illinois also prohibits employment discrimination based on opting out.

There are numerous vendors offering an Illinois-compliant fingerprint timekeeping system. That’s what’s so crazy about this.

> Which begs the question, if they asked and an employee said “no”, what happens? Are they fired?

This is like no-competes or binding arbitration agreements. If you decline to sign, your rights were honored, and you're free to find a job elsewhere.

I was once presented with a binding arbitration agreement by a total insurance company when closing on my a house.

At this point, what choice did I have?

The title insurance company was chosen by the buyer.

Surely the system was designed to accommodate people who lack fingerprints.

Almost certainly given a PIN code.

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