A group of parents and their children in Illinois and California filed a lawsuit last week in Chicago, accusing Meta of illegally using their Facebook and Instagram photos to build NameTag, an unreleased face-recognition system for smart glasses, and to train generative AI models like Emu and Muse Image.
The suit claims Meta violated privacy laws by extracting biometric data from users’ photos without notice or consent.
The lawsuit alleges that Meta embedded NameTag code in its AI companion app, which was downloaded over 50 million times.
While the feature was not enabled for users, the system was designed to turn faces captured by the glasses into biometric signatures and compare them with faceprints stored on users’ phones.
The database was set to receive updates from Meta, though the source of the faceprint data remains unclear.
According to the complaint, the faceprints may come from Facebook and Instagram images, citing reports that Meta employees said NameTag could recognize people through their social media connections or public Instagram accounts.
A company patent also described face matching against profile photos and other images held by Meta. Meta has not disclosed which images, if any, were used for generating biometric data, stating that information remains in its possession.
The lawsuit also targets Meta’s image-generation systems, which it trained on large quantities of Facebook and Instagram images and text. The complaint alleges that this process illegally harvested biometric information about people in the images. Muse Image, released this summer, faced criticism after allowing users to generate images based on public Instagram accounts, a feature the company removed shortly after.
"People shouldn’t have to worry if their biometric information will be misused simply because their photographs appear on a social media platform," said Justin Boley, an attorney for the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs include individuals in Illinois, California, and across the U.S., whose images were uploaded to Facebook or Instagram or submitted to Meta’s generative AI systems since September 4, 2021.
Under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, the plaintiffs are seeking $5,000 per intentional or reckless violation, or actual damages if greater, and $1,000 for each negligent violation, or actual damages if greater, along with injunctive relief. The California claims seek additional damages and other relief.
Source: wired
