Parents sue Meta over alleged use of Facebook photos for AI training

In short: A group of parents and children filed a lawsuit saying Meta used their Facebook and Instagram photos to build and train AI systems without permission.

What happened

Parents in Illinois and California filed a proposed class action lawsuit in federal court in Chicago. They claim Meta used photos from Facebook and Instagram to help build an unreleased face recognition feature called NameTag and to train image making AI models such as Emu and Muse Image.

The lawsuit says Meta broke privacy laws by taking “biometric” information from photos without clear notice or consent. Biometric information is a body based identifier, like a face scan (like turning your face into a unique barcode).

The complaint points to earlier reporting that code for NameTag was found inside an app for Meta smart glasses, even though the feature was not turned on for users. The reporting said the system could turn a face into a “faceprint” and compare it to faceprints stored on a phone, with updates possibly coming from Meta.

Meta denies the claims. A spokesperson said the lawsuit is “without merit,” said NameTag has not been released to consumers, and said Meta is not building a universal face database.

Why it matters

Many people post family photos online without expecting them to be used to teach AI systems or to build face recognition tools. This case could affect what companies must do before using public or user uploaded photos for AI, especially when children are involved. It also raises questions about how much control people should have over “faceprints” created from everyday pictures.

Source: Wired