United States of America: Texas Attorney General files lawsuit against Meta (Facebook) for allegedly using unauthorized biometric data

On 14 February 2022, the Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Meta (formerly Facebook) alleging that the company collected and used the biometric data of Texas residents without obtaining their consent. The Attorney General accused the company of violating Texas’ Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act (CUBI) and Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA). The Attorney General claims that Facebook collected biometric identifiers, physical characteristics unique to each person, e.g. fingerprint, voice or the face geometry, and used the data for commercial purposes. The Attorney General stressed that the biometric data is permanent and cannot be changed, and as a consequence the threat level to the individual’s safety, security and privacy is higher. The Attorney General is asking the court to order Facebook to stop collecting biometric data, destroy the collected information and retrieve the data sold or shared with third parties. The lawsuit also seeks monetary compensations in form of civil penalties of USD 25’000 per CUBI violation and USD 10’000 for each DTPA violation.