{
  "id": 7585437,
  "title": "Meta Is Using Instagram Users’ Photos to Build a Universal Facial Recognition System for Its Hated Smart Glasses, Class Action Lawsuit Claims",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/15/meta-is-using-instagram-users-photos-to-build-a-universal-facial",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-15T15:58:26.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Futurism",
    "slug": "futurism",
    "url": "https://futurism.com/future-society/meta-instagram-users-photos-facial-recognition-lawsuit"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The class action lawsuit against Meta alleges that the company unlawfully collected Instagram users' photos to develop a universal facial recognition system for its controversial smart glasses, dubbed \"NameTag.\" The families from Illinois and California are accusing Meta of scraping their Facebook and Instagram photos without consent to build this system. Meta has denied these allegations, stating that the lawsuit is without merit and that they have been transparent about their use of people's information to improve their AI products. The proposed class action claims that Meta extracted biometric signatures from publicly available social media profiles, which were then used to match signatures to profile photos. Meta's AI system, called Emu, was also trained on a vast array of user-uploaded images and text. The company has previously faced criticism for mishandling sensitive user data, including a $650 million settlement in 2020 and a $1.4 billion settlement in 2024.",
  "summary": "The company has already had to settle several facial recognition-related lawsuits. The post Meta Is Using Instagram Users’ Photos to Build a Universal Facial Recognition System for Its Hated Smart Glasses, Class Action Lawsuit Claims appeared first on Futurism .",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}