Texas city is all set to sue Meta, the parent company of Facebook(FB) and is thinking of seeking billions of dollars from it as penalty. A lawsuit filed on Monday by the legal representatives of the state claims that the social media giant is misusing its user data for a Facial Recognition(FR) project that clearly violates privacy protections prevailing in the state.
According to a source working under Ken Paxton, the Attorney General of Texas, the social media giant has been using photos uploaded onto its platform from 2010 and utilized all the user images uploaded to 2021 for a Facial Recognition project.
Keeping aside the images related to the FB users from other states, the Texas Attorney General’s Office in Marshall district of Texas is only interested in asking FB to delete all such photos uploaded onto its platform by users living in the said state, as it violates the Texas data privacy rules.
The lawsuit alleges the Mark Zuckerberg’s company of harvesting photos and videos of a Texas populace without their permission; all to rake billions as profits.
In the year 2018-2019, Texas administration passed a law that all technology companies should stop using data harvesting techniques for marketing purposes, at least for the next 20 years.
And as Meta ignored this law, it is being sued for billions and the gained amount is pledged to be used for development of critical infrastructure and welfare of the populace of Texas.
NOTE– In the year 2015, Facebook was sued similarly in a separate lawsuit related to Facial Recognition and the then world’s largest social media giant settled for $640 million on an amicable note.
