Meta sued over AI training data and unreleased face-recognition system
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Parents and children in Illinois and California filed a federal lawsuit in Chicago alleging Meta illegally used Facebook and Instagram photos to build its unreleased NameTag face-recognition system and train generative AI models Emu and Muse Image. The proposed class action claims Meta violated Illinois and California privacy laws by extracting biometric information without notice or consent. Meta says the lawsuit is without merit and that NameTag has not shipped to consumers.
Key Facts
- The lawsuit was filed last week in federal court in Chicago by parents and children from Illinois and California.
- Meta's NameTag face-recognition system was secretly embedded in the Meta glasses AI companion app, which had been downloaded more than 50 million times.
- Meta trained its Emu image-generation model on large quantities of Facebook and Instagram images and text, according to chief product officer Chris Cox.
- Muse Image, released this summer, allowed users to generate images based on other people's public Instagram accounts before Meta removed the feature within days.
The Lawsuit
A set of parents and their children in Illinois and California filed a lawsuit last week in federal court in Chicago alleging that Meta illegally used their Facebook and Instagram photos to build NameTag, an unreleased face-recognition system for its smart glasses, and to train generative AI models including Emu and Muse Image. The proposed class action alleges that Meta violated Illinois and California privacy laws by extracting biometric information from people's photos without notice or consent. The complaint acknowledges that Meta has not disclosed which images, if any, were used for generating biometric data, saying that information remains solely in the company's possession.
NameTag Face Recognition
WIRED reported in June that code for NameTag had been secretly embedded in the Meta glasses AI companion app, which had been downloaded more than 50 million times. While the feature had not been enabled for users of the app, the analysis found that the system was designed to turn faces captured by the glasses into biometric signatures and compare them with so-called faceprints stored in a database on the user's phone. That database was configured to receive updates from Meta, and the complaint alleges that those faceprints are possibly derived from Facebook and Instagram images, citing reporting that Meta employees claimed that NameTag could recognize people through their Meta connections or public Instagram accounts, along with a company patent describing face matching against profile photos and other images held by Meta. Meta told WIRED in June that it was 'not building a central face database,' but it would not answer questions about whether NameTag would be opt-in or how the system would retain faceprints.
AI Training Data
Meta has said it trained Emu on large quantities of Facebook and Instagram images and text, with chief product officer Chris Cox calling those platforms a 'data advantage' for its AI systems. The complaint alleges that the training process illegally harvested biometric information about people who appeared in the images. Muse Image, released this summer, had earlier drawn criticism after allowing users to generate images based on other people's public Instagram accounts, a feature the company removed within days after saying it had 'missed the mark.' A Meta spokesperson said in a statement: 'This lawsuit is without merit and misrepresents our work. We've been transparent about how we use people's information to build and improve our AI products. As for NameTags, nothing has shipped to consumers and no final decision has been made on what to do here, if anything.'
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