Meta Lawsuit: Texas Takes Legal Action vs. Facebook Over Illegal Harvesting of Facial Recognition Data

Texas on Monday filed a lawsuit against Facebook's parent company, Meta, over the facial recognition feature on the social media platform.

The lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that the parent company gathered facial recognition data through Facebook, without the "informed" consent of the users, per CBS News.

CNN noted that the lawsuit was filed in Harrison County District Court, slamming the photo tagging feature of Facebook that analyzes faces in photos, including the faces of those who do not use the social media platform.

"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," Paxton said, adding that what Meta did is another example of "Big Tech's deceitful practices."

Because of this, the Texas lawsuit asks the court to impose a $25,000 civil penalty per violation of the state's biometric law and $10,000 per violation of the Texas consumer protection law.

Attorney General Paxton said he is seeking billions of dollars in damages, but he did not mention the exact amount.

Facebook Lawsuit: Texas' Action on the App's Facial Recognition Feature

According to Texas law, companies must obtain "informed consent" from people to use their biometric data. This law underscored that users should be informed before their biometric data is captured, and it can only be done if they agree to it.

However, a Texas lawsuit against Meta contended that from 2010 to June 2011, Facebook "secretly forced millions of Texans into a facial-recognition scheme without their informed consent."

"Little did users know that when they answered the simple question of who was in the photograph, they were helping to teach Facebook's facial recognition technology to better map and recognize human faces for the benefits of Facebook's commercial endeavors," the lawsuit states via Cnet.

The lawsuit Paxton filed against Meta was not the only legal action he issued concerning big tech companies. CBS News stressed that Paxton launched an investigation on Twitter over its ban on former President Donald Trump. He also filed several lawsuits against Google.

Meta on Texas Lawsuit

Meta has not yet issued an official statement regarding the most recent case Texas has filed against them. However, a spokesperson from Facebook's parent company commented on the matter, saying that Texas' claims "are without merit" and that they will defend their camp "vigorously."

Texas lawsuit came after a federal judge approved a class-action settlement lawsuit in Illinois, where Facebook agreed to pay $650 million over allegedly using face tagging and other biometric data without the consent of the users, per NBC News.

In November, Facebook said that they are going to scale back their facial recognition system and delete more than one billion user templates.

However, Meta's Vice President for Artificial Intelligence, Jerome Pesenti, said that they would still use facial recognition for a "narrow set of use cases" such as gaining access to a locked account, verifying their identity, or unlocking a personal device.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Texas Suing Meta Over Facial Recognition Technology-Seeking Hundreds Of Billions In Penalties - From Forbes Breaking News