This week, video safety and telematics company Lytx Inc. debuted a new geofencing feature in response to concerns over biometrics privacy laws in the state of Illinois.

On March 27, 2025, Lytx announced the new “Dynamic Adjust for Illinois Restrictions” feature designed for trucking fleets that operate within or through Illinois. The feature “creates a custom geofence around the borders of the state” that allows fleets to disable in-cab recording while passing through Illinois.

The company rolled out the feature due to concerns over the Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) passed in Illinois in 2008. The state law seeks to protect the biometric data of individuals, including retina or iris scans, fingerprints, voiceprints, or scans of hand or face geometry.

“When enabled, Dynamic Adjust for Illinois Restrictions automatically disables in-cab machine vision and artificial intelligence (MV+AI)  technology when a vehicle enters Illinois and re-enables it upon exit. Lytx’s in-cab MV+AI includes detection of risky driving behaviors such as smoking, distracted driving, cell phone use, inattentiveness, eating and drinking, and not wearing a seat belt. This provides an additional configuration option for fleets driving in Illinois, underscoring Lytx’s commitment to delivering products that empower clients to meet their evolving needs,” the company said.

“Whether it’s an over-the-road or short haul fleet, at the end of the day, every fleet cares about protecting their people, their equipment, and their reputation,” stated Rajesh Rudraradhya, Chief Technology Officer at Lytx. “Dynamic Adjust for Illinois Restrictions can be tuned to optimize all three.”

Lytx also detailed other features for fleets with concerns about privacy laws:

• Lytx Conceal Service — Available in Europe through the Lytx Surfsight^® solution, it employs advanced blurring technology to automatically obscure faces and license plates. It is particularly valuable for organizations operating in regions with applicable privacy laws or those handling sensitive operations where minimizing access to personal data is key.
• Risk ID Without Recording — Available as part of the Lytx DriveCam® solution, the feature enables the detection and alerting of risky behaviors without needing to record in-cab video. It allows organizations to maintain high safety standards while addressing the privacy concerns of the driver.

Lytx’s “Dynamic Adjust for Illinois Restrictions” offering comes after companies found to have violated BIPA have faced major legal liability in recent years.

Notably, in 2024, railroad company BNSF agreed to pay $75 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a class of 46,500 truck drivers. According to the lawsuit, BNSF required truck drivers to submit to fingerprint scans prior to entering Chicago-area rail yards in order to verify their identities. The suit argued that BNSF did not tell the truck drivers that they would maintain the scanned fingerprints in a database, and that this action violated BIPA. BNSF was previously ordered to pay out $228 million, or $5000 per truck driver, following a jury trial, but this damages amount was overturned.