Hillicon Valley — Facebook sued over facial scans

by Rebecca Klar and Chris Mills Rodrigo - 02/14/22 6:01 PM ET

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Facebook captured facial scans of users to boost its business, according to a lawsuit filed by Texas’ attorney general today. The case adds onto a growing pile of legal challenges facing Facebook and its newly formed parent company Meta.

Let’s jump into the news.

Texas takes on Facebook

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Texas is suing Facebook over allegations that the social media giant violated Texans’ privacy through the company’s previous use of facial recognition technology, according to a complaint filed Monday.

“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,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said in a statement. “This is yet another example of Big Tech’s deceitful business practices and it must stop. I will continue to fight for Texans’ privacy and security.”

The lawsuit alleges Facebook, now under the parent company Meta, captured biometric data of Texans for commercial purposes without their informed consent and failed to destroy collected identifiers within a reasonable time.

The lawsuit also alleges that Facebook violated the privacy of people who were not even users on the platform by collecting biometric identifiers from photos and videos “innocently uploaded by friends and family who did use Facebook.”

“There was no way for such non-users to know of or contest this exploitation,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. A person familiar with the matter told the Journal the lawsuit seeks civil penalties in the hundreds of billions of dollars.