Court Allows Two GIPA Cases To Proceed Based on Pre-Employment Physical Exams

While many have heard of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, or “BIPA,” Illinois has a similar, although less infamous, statute covering genetic information – the Genetic Information Privacy Act or “GIPA.” While GIPA has existed since 1998, it has been litigated very sparsely. Recently, in a key development in privacy law, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Judge Sharon Coleman issued two of the first federal decisions applying a substantive analysis to key provisions of GIPA in the employment context.