{"id":13236,"date":"2022-02-14T22:35:08","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T22:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/14\/texas-sues-meta-over-facebooks-past-facial-recognition-practices\/"},"modified":"2022-02-14T22:35:08","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T22:35:08","slug":"texas-sues-meta-over-facebooks-past-facial-recognition-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/14\/texas-sues-meta-over-facebooks-past-facial-recognition-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas sues Meta over Facebook’s past facial recognition practices"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Texas’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Meta that claims Facebook’s facial recognition policies resulted in “tens of millions” of state privacy violations. <\/p>\n

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The lawsuit, which was filed in a Texas district court on Monday by Attorney General Ken Paxton, focuses on the company’s capture of biometric data in user-uploaded photos. Facebook carried out the practice from 2010 until November 2021<\/a>, when it shut down the program. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Facebook has been secretly harvesting Texans’ most personal information\u2014 photos and videos\u2014 for its own corporate profit,” Paxton said in a statement. “Texas law has prohibited such harvesting without informed consent for over 20 years.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Meta said the claims are “without merit” and added that it would defend itself “vigorously.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At the time, Facebook’s practice focused on identifying users in photos and automatically notifying them if they appeared in photos or videos uploaded by another person. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Texas is seeking civil penalties that could amount in the hundreds of billions of dollars, a person familiar with the matter told<\/a> The Wall Street Journal<\/em>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In 2020, Facebook settled a prior lawsuit in Illinois over its facial recognition practices for around $650 million. After the settlement became known to the public, Texas sent a civil subpoena to the social media juggernaut inquiring about the facial recognition system. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Along with shutting down the automatic facial recognition, Facebook also said that it would limit the use of the technology and delete all stored facial data. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Texas state law prohibits the capturing of biometric identifiers without a person’s informed consent. It also bars companies from sharing that biometric data. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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While the Texas law can only be enforced by the state attorney general, it provides for a penalty of up to $25,000 per violation. Back in 2021, there were an estimated 20 million Texans on Facebook, the complaint claims.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n