The story so far: The U.S. State of Texas has sued Meta for using biometric data of users for commercial purposes without their informed consent. Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is the parent company of social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
“The scope of Facebook's misconduct is staggering,” the lawsuit said, targeting the social media giant under various Texas laws.
What are the allegations made in the lawsuit?
The lawsuit was filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The document alleges that Facebook captured biometric information of the residents of Texas from their photos and videos uploaded on the website for over ten years and disclosed it to third-party applications for commercial benefits. It also adds that Facebook did not destroy this data “within a reasonable time”.
“Facebook’s omnipresent empire was built on deception, lies, and brazen abuses of Texan’s privacy rights – all for Facebook’s own commercial gain. Of relevance here, for over a decade, while holding itself out as a trusted meeting place for Texans to connect and share special moments with family and friends, Facebook was secretly capturing, disclosing, unlawfully retaining – and profiting off of – Texans' most personal and highly sensitive information: records of their facial geometries,” the lawsuit document reads. Facebook was reportedly capturing data of non-users as well, from photos and videos uploaded on the website by their acquaintances.
The lawsuit further alleges that by capturing sensitive biometric information, Facebook improved its facial-recognition technology and created a powerful Artificial Intelligence (AI) framework that has now spread around the globe.
Meta’s alleged actions violate Texas’ Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act (CUBI) and Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA).
CUBI defines retina or iris scan, fingerprint, voiceprint, or record of hand or face geometry as “biometric identifiers”. The law prohibits the use of these identifiers for commercial purposes unless the individual was informed before the information was captured and explicit consent to record the identifier was received. It also calls for biometric identifiers to be destroyed within a reasonable time.
DTPA deems “false, misleading, or deceptive acts or practices” in business as unlawful in Texas.
The lawsuit also accuses Meta of running similar experiments on its image-sharing platform Instagram, although Instagram’s data policy mentions that users will be notified if facial recognition is introduced on the site.
What is facial recognition technology?
Facial recognition technology uses sophisticated algorithms to record features like face geometry and retina and iris scans to develop an electronic map of the face, thus making it easier to reveal the identities of people through photographs and videos.
Read: How is facial recognition used in today’s world?
While this technology has become extensively intertwined with our lives in how we unlock our mobile phones, how we gain access to our bank accounts and so on, facial recognition can also be used as a tool of surveillance. China reportedly uses facial recognition technology in Xinjiang province. The Texas lawsuit against Meta points out that the technology can be misused by stalkers and criminals to reveal information about their targets, including their exact geographical locations.
Has Facebook discontinued facial recognition?
In November 2021, Facebook had announced that it will shut down its facial-recognition system that identifies people in photos and videos uploaded on the social media site. The company also said that it will delete the faceprints of over one billion people.
“This change will represent one of the largest shifts in facial recognition usage in the technology’s history,” Jerome Pesenti, vice president of artificial intelligence at Meta, had said.
Previously in September 2019, Facebook had announced that it was discontinuing the tag suggestions setting under which the website itself could suggest its users to tag other people in photos and videos using facial recognition. The Texas lawsuit alleges that Facebook was capturing facial geometry to train its AI under the garb of improving user experience.
In 2015, Facebook was sued in Illinois, U.S., under the Biometric Information Privacy Act. The class-action lawsuit alleged that the social media platform did not adequately disclose how it handled the biometric data of users. Facebook finally settled the dispute in February 2021 and agreed to pay $650 million to the 1.6 million members of the class in Illinois.
