Chirag Jain (NYU Law) has posted “Virtual Fitting Rooms: A Review of Underlying Artificial Intelligence Technologies, Current Developments, and the Biometric Privacy Laws in the US, EU and India” on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Part of this paper focuses on how retail fashion stores leverage AI algorithms to offer enhanced interactive features in virtual try-on mirrors, and the other part analyzes the current state of biometric data privacy laws in the US, EU, and India, and their impact on the usage of AR technologies in the retail fashion industry. Specifically, the author has attempted to deep dive into the architectural design of virtual fitting rooms (one of the technologies that have recently gained traction in law firm articles discussing the surge in biometric privacy law litigations) and analyze several advanced AI techniques; (ii) discussed the ethical issues that can arise from the usage of underlying AI technologies in VFR; (iii) briefly compared and analyzed the biometric privacy law landscape in the US, EU, and India, and especially, in the US, analyze the approach followed by the Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, which has remained a cause of concern for various businesses engaged in the collection of biometric data; (iv) suggested various recommendations for technology vendors and fashion brands – to design VFRs with “privacy by design” principles being at the forefront; and (v) Lastly, made a recommendation for legislators, by suggesting that in almost all the biometric data protection laws proposed in each state in the US, and if possible in the existing laws, collection of “second-order data” (like body geometry) without any first-order data (i.e., a retina or iris scan, a fingerprint or voiceprint, a scan of hand or face geometry, or any other identifying characteristic) shall be excluded from the ambit of “biometric identifiers” as that can reduce the unnecessary regulatory pressure in the usage of technologies like VFRs for commercial purpose.
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