|
Christmas is rapidly approaching and like many families, my wife handles 90%+ the present shopping duties. This year, though, she took it a step further and sent me a direct link to what she’d like me to purchase for her. Now I’m confused. Is this a) the easiest Christmas ever. Buy the suggested gift and don’t over think it? Or is it option b) “it’s a trap”?
New Bills of Interest
HB 4247 (Davis) - Creates the Online Age Verification for Material Harmful to Minors Act. Requires any commercial entity that knowingly or intentionally publishes or distributes material harmful to minors on the Internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of such material to verify that any person attempting to access such material is 18 years of age or older. Provides that verification must be done through the use of (i) a commercially available database that is regularly used by businesses or governmental entities for the purpose of age and identity verification or (ii) another commercially reasonable method of age and identity verification. Provides that any commercial entity that violates the Act shall be subject to civil liability for damages resulting from a minor's access to such material harmful to a minor and reasonable attorney's fees and costs. Exempts from liability providers or users of an interactive computer service on the Internet, as defined.
2024 Tech Council Initiatives
I’m working on finalizing council initiatives for the 2024 session. If you have any legislative ideas, both in support or opposition, that you’d like to discuss or for us to discuss council wide, please shoot me an email or give me a call.
Illinois’ Draft State Digital Equity Plan Posted for Public Comment
On December 4, the Illinois Office of Broadband published the draft Illinois State Digital Equity Plan. The plan draws from Illinois’ ambitious 54-stop statewide listening tour, integrates thorough data analysis, and builds upon years of community outreach and engagement. The draft is included among other planning documents we have created to meet National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) requirements for Digital Equity and Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program funding. Public comment can be submitted here throughout December 2023 and January 2024.
Questions regarding the plan or public comment process can be directed to broadband@illinois.gov.
ICYMI- BIPA Win in Illinois Supreme Court
It’s really nice to be able to report on good BIPA related news for once. Special thank you is due to John Adams at EimerStahl for drafting the Chamber’s amicus brief for this case.
The Illinois Supreme Court held that the Biometric Information Privacy Act “excludes from its protections the biometric information of health care workers where that information is collected, used, or stored for health care treatment, payment, or operations, as those functions are defined by HIPPA. A health care worker’s biometric information, used to permit access to medication dispending stations for patient care . . . is exempt from [BIPA’s] protections.” Mosby, 2013 IL 129081, ¶ 54 (citing 740 ILCS 14/10). Accordingly, the Court reversed the judgement of the appellate court and remanded the case to the circuit court for further proceedings.
As you’ll recall, the certified question in this case asked whether the language following “or” in Section 10 of BIPA—which excludes as “biometric identifiers” “information collected, used, or stored for health care treatment, payment, or operations under HIPPA”—refers exclusively to a patient’s biometric information (as the plaintiffs argued) or includes a health care worker’s biometric information used to access patient medications and provide patient care (as the defendants argued). Agreeing with the defendants, the Court adopted the reasoning from our brief.
Rulemaking
No rulemaking of note has occurred since last week.
Spring Session Schedule
Both chambers will return to Springfield on January 16th at the call of the Speaker and Senate President. The 2024 Spring session calendar is now available. Click to view the House and Senate calendars.
| 
