Illinois woman sues Target for collecting face, finger print scans without her consent

ILLINOIS (WLS) -- A woman filed a class action lawsuit against Target, accusing the retailer of storing customers' biometric data without consent.

Arnetta Deans, an Illinois resident, accused the company of violating Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act.

The documents also pointed to several social media posts of alleged former Target employees saying the company takes a pictures of customers using surveillance systems without informing customers.

As the Illinois law allows, Deans is asking for $5,000 for each intentional or reckless violation of BIPA, and $1,000 for every negligent violation of the law.

Last year, a similar complaint was filed against Meta, the parent company of Instagram.

RELATED | Illinois users may be entitled to payment from Instagram class action settlement

What is biometric data?

Biometrics are unique physical characteristics, such as fingerprints.

For example, Department of Homeland Security uses biometrics to detect and prevent illegal entry into the country.

ABC7 Chicago reached out to Target Corp. for a comment on the class action lawsuit and did not immediately hear back.