Texas Sues Meta For Using Facial Recognition Technology Without User Consent

Facebook's facial recognition technology is again in question. (photo: doc. Meta)

JAKARTA - Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, has sued Meta Platform Inc., over the use of facial recognition technology. The company in its social media, Facebook is claimed to violate the Texas Arrest or Use of Biometric Identifier Act (CUBI).

The lawsuit, filed today in the state's district court, alleges Facebook's photo tagging system was used without the consent of its users.

"Facebook has, for more than a decade, built an Artificial Intelligence empire behind the Texans by deceiving them while capturing their most intimate data, thereby endangering their well-being, safety and security," the lawsuit states.

"The state is filing this lawsuit to hold Facebook accountable for secretly violating Texas laws for more than a decade, and to stop Facebook from violating the rights of Texans for its commercial gain," he added.

Responding to the lawsuit, a spokesperson for Meta said, "These claims are baseless and we will defend ourselves vigorously."

In addition to CUBI, Paxton claims Meta also violates the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices - Consumer Protection Act (DTPA), and it has been done billions of times, as quoted from ZDNet, Tuesday, February 15.

The CUBI restrictions, passed in 2009, require approval before collecting biometric data such as the geometry of a person's face.

Paxton alleges that Facebook scans photos of users without asking permission and underestimates the fact that its automated tagging system amounts to a mass collection of biometric data.

It also echoes the lawsuit's earlier claim that Instagram scans images for facial recognition, which allegedly contradicts a statement in its user agreement.

Therefore, Paxton wants Meta to pay $25.000 in civil penalties for each CUBI violation, as well as $10,000 in civil penalties for each DTPA violation.

For your information, Facebook started using facial recognition on its platform about a decade ago, but the technology has continued to evolve since then.

About six years ago, a Facebook user from Illinois filed a class-action lawsuit alleging the social media's facial recognition system violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).

The law prevents companies from collecting or using biometric information from users without their consent. The case was settled last year for US$650 million (IDR 9.3 trillion).

Then last November, Facebook announced it would shut down its facial recognition system and remove individual facial recognition templates for more than a billion people.

The Texas lawsuit acknowledges the steps the company is taking, "At that time, however, it had spent more than a decade secretly exploiting Texans and their personal information to perfect its AI tools," the lawsuit says.