Texas is suing Facebook’s parent company, Meta, for unauthorized use of facial-recognition technology.
The lawsuit accuses Meta of violating the state’s law by capturing the biometric information of millions of Texans without their consent. That data came from videos and photos uploaded by users and non-users. Facebook was repeatedly capturing such biometric identifiers “billions of times” and failing to destroy them within a reasonable time.
“The scope of Facebook’s misconduct is staggering. Facebook repeatedly captured Texans’ biometric identifiers without consent not hundreds, or thousands, or millions of times — but billions of times,” the lawsuit reads.
According to Attorney General Ken Paxton, who filed the lawsuit, such practice has been banned in Texas for over 20 years, with Facebook continuously violating it.
‘Texas law has prohibited such harvesting without informed consent for over 20 years. While ordinary Texans have been using Facebook to innocently share photos of loved ones with friends and family, we now know that Facebook has been brazenly ignoring Texas law for the last decade,’ Mr. Paxton said, according to Daily Mail.
A Meta spokesperson denied allegations, suggesting: “These claims are without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously.” Back in November, Meta announced that it’s shutting down the use of facial recognition on Facebook, aiming to delete billions of records over privacy concerns.
“Facebook will no longer take advantage of people and their children with the intent to turn a profit at the expense of one’s safety and well-being,” Mr. Paxton commented. “This is yet another example of Big Tech’s deceitful business practices and it must stop. I will continue to fight for Texans’ privacy and security.”
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