Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is facing a proposed biometric privacy class action after failing to convince a federal judge that its Neutrogena Skin360 facial-scanning service falls under an Illinois law’s healthcare exemption.
No medical professionals are involved with Neutrogena Skin360’s skin assessments.
Therefore, New Jersey federal judge Michael A Shipp ruled that defining the service as “medical care” under the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) would be “a reach”.
The Neutrogena Skin360 technology that provides consumers with a personalised at-home skin assessment by scanning a consumer’s face and analysing the facial scan to diagnose skin health issues.
It then recommends a skin care regimen of Neutrogena products.
The service requires consumers to turn on and use their live camera for 180-degree selfie scans.
Between 2020 and 2022, the Illinois-located plaintiffs involved in the Second Amended Complaint (SAC) in question – Helene Melzer, Christine Borovoy, Andy Sajnani and Patricia Biewald – each used the Skin360 application on their mobile devices.
They allege that, in creating this assessment, the technology scanned, collected, captured, used and stored in an electronic database digital copies of their unique facial geometries.
They further claim that J&J did not inform them in any manner that their biometrics were being captured, collected, stored, used or disseminated.
The plaintiffs say this biometric data is tied to individuals’ names, birth dates and other personally identifying information.
J&J had moved to dismiss the SAC, arguing that the alleged conduct fell within BIPA’s healthcare exemption.
In a Court Opinion, published 7 March 2025, Shipp noted that Skin360 relies on artificial intelligence (Al) to compare a user’s skin to a database of thousands of images, providing the user with a skin assessment based on these image comparisons.
The service provides a virtual skin health coach, an Al assistant that users can interact with while using the technology.
“Even assuming Skin360 provides users with this Al assistant and ‘science-backed information’, the court finds it a reach to consider these services ‘medical care’ under BIPA’s healthcare exemption,” the judge ruled.
Neutrogena has been a part of the Kenvue stable of brands since the J&J spin-off went independent in 2023.
- Companies:
- Johnson and Johnson
- Kenvue
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