PepsiCo Inc. has been hit with a proposed class action alleging its collection and storage of workers’ voice data broke Illinois’ biometric privacy law.
William Hoskin, a former employee at Pepsi’s Chicago distribution center, was never informed by the soda maker that the voice recognition software he was required to use at work was being accessed and managed by the company, he claimed in a complaint filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
This allegation, if true, would put the New York-based company at odds with Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, or BIPA. The first-of-its-kind state law requires companies operating in the state to inform consumers and employees and receive their consent before collecting biometric identifying information such as a fingerprint or a voiceprints.
Hoskin brought the proposed class action on behalf of all Illinois citizens employed by Pepsi whose voiceprints were obtained by the company. It’s a number of employees the complaint estimated to be “in the thousands.”
Hoskin’s voiceprints were collected through Honeywell International Inc.'s Vocollect Technology, which included a headset and a mobile device that employees clipped to their belts, according to the complaint. He and other distribution center employees designated as “pickers” used the technology while they picked and packaged items for customers.
The software functioned as a “biometric timeclock system” that clocked them in and out of...
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