Texas: Legal Suit on Facebook facial recognition

On February 14, 2022, attorney general office of Texas sued Meta’s (FB.O) Facebook, after alleging that it has violated state privacy protections with facial-recognition technology.

Highlights

• Facebook was alleged that, its facial-recognition technology collected biometric data of millions of Texans without their consent.
• It accused Facebook of capturing biometric information from videos and photos that users uploaded without consent and disclosing it to others.
• The new lawsuit was filed in a state court in Marshall, Texas. It says that 20.5 million people in Texas have a Facebook account. Facebook repeatedly captured biometric identifies of people without their consent many times.

Shutting down of facial recognition system

In November 2021, Facebook had announced to shut down a facial recognition system and to delete information of more than a billion people. It cited concerns on using technology and uncertainty over rules regarding its use. Company had also agreed to pay USD 650 million in 2020, for settling an Illinois state lawsuit, dealing with similar concerns.