Meta faces US federal lawsuit over alleged biometric privacy violations in Illinois and California

The allegations build on a June investigation by WIRED, which found NameTag code embedded in the Meta AI companion app.

The lawsuit goes further by alleging that this process involved the collection and use of biometric information from people appearing in those images.

For the Illinois plaintiffs, the complaint invokes the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).

Under Section 15, private entities must provide written notice and obtain a written release before collecting or obtaining a person’s biometric identifier or biometric information.

Under BIPA, photographs themselves are excluded from the definition of biometric identifiers, while scans of face geometry and biometric information derived from covered identifiers can fall within the law’s protections.