Understanding Biometric Privacy Laws in Construction
As a product designer for Vinay Industries, my primary focus has always been on the mechanical properties of our construction machinery. But as a modern professional in the construction industry, my responsibilities also extend to legal compliance and corporate strategy adaptation to current and future regulations.
Our company is at the frontier of advanced construction machinery design. We are increasingly tracking the assets and activities of the construction industry with biometric technology. But you cannot simply empower your employee base and equipment tracking system with advanced technology. You must fully understand the legal landscape and choose the optimal business strategy to match. Let’s take a look at how one of the most complex but major touchpoints and information sources in our industry, timecards, can create hidden compliance problems when using cutting edge technology.
Biometric privacy laws require an employer to inform workers that biometrics are being used. They also have regulations about protection of biometric data storage and maintaining security of that data. The fines for violations can be up to $5,000 per violation.
This varies by state. Not every state has a law. Some have very limited laws that may only affect a small number of companies or workers. Some states are more comprehensive. This won’t always matter if the construction company in question operates only in one state. But if you operate across state lines you’ll need to be highly aware of the legal exposure in the state where the workers are.
Understanding biometric privacy laws by state can open up companies operating in multiple jurisdictions to a wide degree of liability. It also leaves individual business owners highly exposed to lawsuits in their local areas. Often a construction company could have workers for which biometrics would be required, but if the use of biometrics were to only be in one or two states your company may be in violation of other states laws, or otherwise highly exposed to lawsuits. The legal risks are not only from employees who can sue them, sometimes even independent contractors.
Contract clauses in joint venture agreements or agreements with clients could also be a liability issue if prison alternative activities are taking place where biometrics are involved. Such as using biometrics to verify the identity of a subcontractor who comes onto the site to review, modify or collect data. There could be a situation where you have a contract with a jail or prison where prison labor is used to provide services or perform work. But you need to be able to clearly delineate the difference between those third parties and independent subcontractors. Although the liability is on the facility or business owner, there could be contractual liability as well.
To comply with the articles on biometric privacy laws by state, construction companies need to be aware of all the states they are operating in. Then they need to understand the different laws and legal enforcement actions that could take place. Companies that don’t want to face any potential liability would have to avoid using biometric data completely.
But the other option is to adopt a highly comprehensive, strict and thorough compliance program to protect themselves from these risks. This could include using password access, firewalls, SSL, and monitoring systems on those devices and the networks they use. System and network security may need to be upgraded if the construction company is using multiple network levels, Bluetooth, GPS, and wireless access points. Such changes could also help if a company does not yet use biometrics, but has plans to do so.
The personnel policies and procedures on the employee end must be updated, and all personnel must be trained on the biometric system and how the data will be used, and the security and information privacy policies and procedures surrounding the use of this type of data and information sharing.
It is critical to explain to all employees why the advanced technology is being used and how their data will be kept secure. Will their fingerprints, faces, irises or other biometric data be shared with others? Who? Where will it be stored? Can anyone access it?
Vinay Industries employs expert legal advice through this website and other means like a legal advisor on retainer. Doing so helps us avoid fines, reduce liability and be able to make the most efficient use of the technology available to us.
Properly understanding and implementing the latest technologies requires extensive knowledge of the law. You may have an internal compliance or legal department. For example, a contractor who uses prison labor and hires a compliance officer to make sure they don’t break any laws. But their compliance officer may not be specialized enough to understand the technology issues. In this situation they need to go externally to outside counsel.
Efficient and effective use of advanced technology limits overhead and streamlines the actual work that must be done. In the construction industry, we are often loading and unloading large amounts of equipment, parts, materials and raw inputs. The average timecard process can take up a lot of time. Time wasted on the clock comes at a cost. But the new technology means we can empower our workers to be more productive and creative. We are fitting technology to the needs of the workers. And optimizing the business strategy to maximize the workers productivity.