Meta’s past use of facial recognition technology has once again put the company in potential legal trouble. On Monday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton File a lawsuit against the company, alleging that it collected the biometric data of millions of Texans without their consent to do so. The center of the case is Facebook now . The platform has previously used the technology as part of its “tag suggestion” feature, which uses image recognition to scan photos and automatically tag users in them.
Last November, Meta closed that system, citing, among other reasons, ““On how technology will be regulated in the future. Last year, the company paid to settle a lawsuit alleging it violated Illinois privacy laws that require companies to obtain “explicit” consent before collecting biometric data from users.
Based on , Texas filed a civil subpoena to Meta after the outcome of the Illinois case was announced. The state is said to be seeking hundreds of billions of dollars in civil fines. The Texas regulations can impose fines of up to $25,000 for each violation of the law. According to the attorney general’s complaint, at least 20 million Texans were using Facebook by 2021.
Attorney General Paxton said: “Facebook will no longer take advantage of people and their children for the purpose of making a profit at the expense of one’s safety and well-being. “This is another example of Big Tech’s fraudulent business practices and it has to stop. I will continue to fight for the privacy and security of Texans.”
A spokesperson for Meta told Engadget: “These claims have no merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously.
Meta isn’t the only major tech company to join the battle with Texas. In 2020, Paxton’s office filed a lawsuit against several states focus on the company’s advertising business. Last month, Google asked a judge to dismiss that lawsuit. “AG Paxton’s allegations are hotter than light and we don’t believe they meet the legal standard to bring this case to trial,” said Adam Cohen, director of economic policy at Google, said at that time. “The complaint misrepresents our business, our products, and our motives, and we are moving to remove that claim because it failed to make reasonable antitrust claims.”
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