More parents sue Meta over how it treats their children
Two parents and their children in Illinois and California have sued the social media giant over unreleased facial recognition software tied to Meta's smart glasses.
Parents in Illinois and California are taking legal action against Meta over allegations that the company collects facial recognition data from Meta Glasses without parental consent. The lawsuit, filed by Francisco Alvarez and his son from Illinois, and Jeremy Wahl and his daughter from California, claims Meta is illegally harvesting Facebook and Instagram photos of children for its facial recognition software and generative AI models.
The parents allege that the company's system, NameTag, which has been secretly embedded in the glasses' AI software, transforms captured faces into unique biometric signatures and checks them against stored faceprints on the user's phone. Meta has not disclosed how it uses the facial data, but the lawsuit also accuses the company of using biometric data from people in photographs for its Emu generative AI model.
Facebook and Instagram have been criticized for harvesting biometric data for profit, similar to the company's origins with the Facemash website. Meta denies the allegations, stating that the lawsuit is "without merit" and that they have been transparent about their use of personal information. The plaintiffs are seeking $5,000 for each reckless or intentional violation and $1,000 for each negligent violation.
This lawsuit is part of a growing trend of parents suing Meta over how the company handles younger users, following earlier lawsuits for addictive qualities and privacy violations.
Written by urgent.news from The A.V. Club's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
