Google and Meta have recently been sued for violations against Texas' biometric privacy law, marking the first few instances of the law's usage since its passage in 2009, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.
Google has been accused by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of abuse in its usage of facial recognition within Google Photos, as well as the voice recognition and face matching capabilities of its Nest smart devices.
"Ultimately, Google has turned Texans desire to take, store, and share photos and videos into a testing ground for AI and other products in its ever-growing, advertising-revenue stream. And, Google has enlisted the friends and family members of those Texans as non-consenting, unknowing participants in Googles scheme," said the lawsuit, which further claims that Google has not informed users and nonusers regarding biometric capturing and storage practices.
The lawsuit could advance biometric privacy legislation at the federal level.
"States are leading the effort to protect biometric privacy, because Congress has failed to do so," said Electronic Frontier Foundation senior attorney Adam Schwartz.
