MAC lawsuit highlights privacy risks in AI beauty tools, says expert
MAC lawsuit highlights privacy risks in AI beauty tools, says expert
https://www.personalcareinsights.com/news/mac-ai-privacy-lawsuit.html
Publish Date: 2026-06-23 10:13:00
Source Domain: www.personalcareinsights.com
The personal care industry’s deployment of AI tools is exposing legal vulnerabilities around consumer consent and data privacy. Beauty brand’s AI-powered tools are drawing questions on biometric privacy, and MAC Cosmetics is the latest to face potential consequences.
On June 4, a US federal judge in Illinois denied MAC Cosmetics’ motion to dismiss a consumer’s data privacy suit. The class action, which will now proceed, was filed by an Illinois resident who is accusing the beauty retailer of collecting imagery of her facial geometry and biometric data via its in-store and online virtual try-on services without adequate disclosures or written consent.
In its motion to dismiss the suit, MAC argued that the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) applies to biometric data capable of identifying a person and that the plaintiff had not plausibly alleged MAC could identify her from the virtual try-on data.
According to Ceren Canal Aruoba, managing director of consulting firm Berkeley Research Group, the lawsuit may be indicative of brewing tension between the cosmetic industry’s rise of AI-powered imagery, data privacy, and informed consent.
Personal Care Insights sits down with Aruoba to discuss the potential legal risks of AI-driven personalization tools, where vulnerabilities arise, and other such cases in the beauty industry. She predicts that AI-related litigation may extend beyond biometrics and into the technology’s influence on consumer beliefs, perceptions, and decision-making.
“As AI becomes more embedded in routine consumer interactions, these potential expectation gaps may become increasingly salient, and could, in some circumstances, serve as a focal point in future disputes,” says Aruoba.
Personal Care Insights has reached out to MAC Cosmetics’ parent company, The Estée Lauder Companies, for comment, but received none by the time of publication.
Data privacy in AI beauty tech
The MAC lawsuit centers on AI-powered virtual try-on technology and…
