John Ekberg is Co-owner of Circle Boring & Machine Co. in Rockford, IL | John Ekberg
John Ekberg is Co-owner of Circle Boring & Machine Co. in Rockford, IL | John Ekberg
When will Illinois start fixing its regulatory mistakes that make it harder for businesses to grow and thrive in our state?
Just look at the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
Thanks to a string of questionable court decisions, a law that's supposed to protect private data has become a tool for abusive litigation. Despite not being the law's original intent, lawyers can now target businesses with enormous fines for each bit of data collected. Many times, there is not even a chance to make changes when confronted with an infraction - even for minor technicalities.
It's a ridiculous money grab for lawyers, not something that actually protects our private data.
Most of these lawsuits are driven by a small group of law firms, who are all too happy to drain the resources of small businesses. While the lawyers get rich, businesses in IL are forced to cut back on employee benefits, hiring, or even continuing to operate. And that's bad for our communities.
Lawmakers need to take action in this year's session and make sensible improvements to BIPA, protecting privacy without unfairly hurting businesses.
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