Makeup by Mario’s ‘Virtual Try-On’ Feature Violates BIPA, Says Class Action
The functionality behind the “virtual try-on” feature at the website of cosmetics merchant Makeup by Mario (MBM) violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, alleged Rockford, Illinois, consumer Nikita Hackler in a class action Tuesday (docket 1:23-cv-01586) in U.S. District…
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Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago. Visitors to MBM’s website who use the virtual try-on feature “can see what they would look like” wearing different MBM products, it said. “All a user must do is enable his or her computer or smartphone camera to take a photo to be used by the website or upload a photo to the website,” it said. But unknown to the user, MBM’s virtual try-on feature “collects detailed and sensitive biometric identifiers and information, including complete face geometry scans,” it said. It does so without first obtaining users’ consent, “or informing them that this data is being collected,” it said. MBM also doesn’t give users a schedule “setting out the length of time during which their biometric information or biometric identifiers will be collected, stored, used, or will be destroyed,” it said. Hackler used the virtual try-on feature two or three times on her iPhone 13 Pro via the Safari browser “to see how various lipstick and eyeliner products would look applied to her face,” it said. “She never bought a product from MBM.” Hackler alleges MBM “lacks a publicly available written policy establishing a retention schedule and guidelines for permanently destroying biometric identifiers or biometric information obtained from consumers, as required by BIPA.” MBM didn’t comment Wednesday.