AUSTIN, Tex. — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Facebook owner, Meta.
Paxton alleges that Meta illegally collected users’ biometric data, including facial recognition technology, without their consent.
The lawsuit goes on to accuse Meta of sending the information to others for profit.
According to the suit, Facebook violated a Texas law that requires people to get permission before capturing a person’s biometric information.
The suit also alleges that Facebook failed to destroy the data in a reasonable amount of time, which violates state law.
The Attorney General’s Office says Facebook violated state law billions of times.
Meta is also accused of violating Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act because it reportedly misled users.
There is a $25,000 penalty for each unlawful capturing of a biometric identifier.
The lawsuit asks for an additional $10,000 civil penalty for each violation.
Paxton estimates that the penalties could add up to billions of dollars.
This lawsuit out of Texas is similar to another suit out of Illinois in 2021, where Facebook was accused of using its Tag Suggestions tool to store users’ biometric data without their consent.
The suit ended with a class action privacy settlement.
Facebook was ordered to pay $650 million.
Meta has not commented on the recent lawsuit in Texas.