Eversheds Sutherland Legal Insights (audio)

Biometric data (fingerprints, retina scans, voice recognition and the like) are used to identify an individual using that person’s unique biological characteristics. No longer a thing of the future or portrayed in an episode of Mission Impossible, private companies and the government collect and use biometric data for a variety of reasons. The use of biometric data ranges from the mundane—tracking employees or serving as a substitute for a typed password log-in on a mobile phone—to the more sophisticated—enhancing national security by monitoring individuals’ whereabouts. Unlike other forms of personal data that have been breached, biometric data cannot be changed, and therefore its theft could give rise to a host of common law claims against the parties responsible for holding it and, in certain jurisdictions, statutory claims.In this webcast, Eversheds Sutherland attorneys Francis Nolan and David Cook discuss: existing statutes governing how companies must handle biometric i