AS Beauty Group Hit with Biometric Privacy Lawsuit in Illinois Over CoverFX.com Facial Scans

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A proposed class action claims the “virtual try-on” feature on AS Beauty Group’s website secretly collects and stores Illinois consumers’ biometric facial scans.

The 18-page lawsuit alleges the cosmetics company has violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), a state law enacted in 2008 to regulate corporations’ use of residents’ biometric data—retina or iris scans, fingerprints, voiceprints, hand scans and facial geometry. According to the case, AS Beauty Group has “refused” to satisfy the BIPA’s basic consent and disclosure requirements, namely in that the company provides no warning that the virtual try-on tool on CoverFX.com collects visitors’ facial scans.

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The complaint explains that a consumer can “try on” AS Beauty Group’s high-end products by activating their device’s camera and allowing the online tool to “accurately detect, in an instant, where beauty products should be placed on [their] face.” From there, a consumer can “move[] the reflected beauty products with [their] movements to ensure that it appears as if the user is actually wearing the beauty products,” the case reads. Site visitors can also see how they look with the company’s makeup products by uploading a photo of themselves, the filing says.

In either case, the virtual try-on feature captures facial geometry scans to determine the correct placement of beauty products on a user’s face, the complaint relays.

The plaintiff, an Illinois resident who used the defendant’s try-on feature at least once last year, claims AS Beauty Group never informed her that it would collect her biometric data, and that she would not have used the tool had she known this would occur.

Although the BIPA prohibits companies from capturing biometric information without first receiving a written release from the consumer, AS Beauty Group does not require visitors to undergo any approval, agreement, or confirmation process before using the try-on tool, the suit contends.

The case further charges that AS Beauty Group has violated the BIPA by failing to disclose to website visitors how long it plans to store their data, when it will be destroyed and the specific purpose for the collection of their biometric identifiers.

The lawsuit looks to cover anyone who, while residing in Illinois, had their biometric identifiers captured by AS Beauty Group through the virtual try-on tool on its websites, including CoverFX.com.

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