Smile for the cameras—or the facial recognition software, as the case may be. The Biometric Identifier Information (BII) law that New York City enacted July 9 will likely send companies scrambling to comply in order to avoid costly private right of action claims brought by consumers. But the impact that the law has outside of the Big Apple is likely to be negligible given its fairly limited scope and jurisdiction.  

The risk posed to businesses, however, is real. The law requires “commercial establishments”—a place of entertainment, a retail store or a food and drinking establishment—to place conspicuous signage notifying consumers that biometric data is being collected on site through means such as facial recognition technology.