Legal Question in Employment Law in Illinois

"Right of Publicity". The Right of Publicity can be defined simply as the right of an individual to control the commercial use of his or her name, image, likeness or other unequivocal aspects of one's identity. It is generally considered a property right as opposed to a personal right, and as such, the validity of the Right of Publicity can survive the death of the individual (to varying degrees depending on the jurisdiction). In the United States, the Right of Publicity is a state law-based right, as opposed to Federal, and recognition of the right can vary from state to state. (excerpted from Wikipedia).

Many company's use images of their employees for promotional purposes. Such employers should have an agreement and release in place whereby the employee gives a blanket authorization for the use of his/her image. Your grandmother has a few options: she can say nothing if the use of her image is notobjectionable and she does not want to lose her job; she can demand compensation (which would be nominal unless she is famous) and risk being terminated; or speak with the company about the use of her image and express her disappointment that they did not ask her permission.