The U.S. state of Texas has sued Meta, formerly Facebook, for using biometric data of several users without their consent to build the company’s AI feature.
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The lawsuit alleged that Facebook unlawfully captured and stored millions of biometric identifiers of its users for commercial purpose. These include retina scan, fingerprint and voiceprint, record of hand, face geometry of users contained in photos and videos uploaded by friends and family using the social media app. And that it failed to destroy these records within a reasonable time.
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The company is violating Texas’ Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act by repeatedly doing this, the lawsuit noted.
“This is yet another example of Big Tech’s deceitful business practices and it must stop,” Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas, said in a statement.
The lawsuit further alleged that Facebook has built an AI empire by deceiving users by capturing their most intimate data and putting their safety and security at risk. The platform has used this information to train and improve its facial-recognition technology and create a powerful AI apparatus reaching out to all corners of the world, even those who have avoided using Facebook services.
The lawsuit also highlighted that the company has already paid a fine of $650 million for engaging in this same conduct in Illinois and claimed to have stopped it’s invasive facial-recognition tech in late 2021.
The Hindu reached out to Meta for their comment but is yet to get any response from the company.