Texas is suing Meta over using facial recognition data without people’s consent

The state of Texas filed a lawsuit today against Meta Platforms Inc. for its use of its facial recognition system, a suit that could end up being very expensive for the tech giant.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleges that Meta, then Facebook Inc., collected biometric data on users without their consent, breaching the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act, CUBI. The state is seeking damages as well as asking that such data is not used again without the consent of users.

Last November, Meta announced that it was shuttering its facial recognition system, meaning something close to one billion people’s faces would be deleted from its systems. The feature was there in the first place so people’s faces would be tagged in photos, something that after time started to concern people.

“Amid this ongoing uncertainty, we believe that limiting the use of facial recognition to a narrow set of use cases is appropriate,” Meta said at the time. At that point, Amazon.com Inc. had already scaled back its development of facial recognition, while IBM Corp. and Microsoft Corp. had also put a hold on similar technology.

In February this year, a judge approved a $650 million settlement with the state of Illinois, with around 1.6 million people in the state being compensated for their faces being used in Meta’s systems. It stated that under Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act individuals should have to give their consent before such data is used.

Paxton also called such data collection in Texas illegal, saying Facebook exploited its users “to grow its empire and reap historic windfall profits.” He added that Facebook did this while knowing that it was violating people’s privacy rights.

“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,” he said. “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.”

The state also seeks damages, but in this case, it is looking for $25,000 for each violation of CUBI and an extra $10,000 for violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Given the number of people affected, if Meta were to pay everyone that amount the cost would be in the many billions. It’s probably a good thing then for Meta that not many U.S. states have biometric privacy laws.

“These claims are without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously,” Meta said in a statement to various media.

Photo: Andriyko Podilnyk/Unsplash