Facebook co-founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sits in his seat at a bipartisan Artificial Intelligence Insight Forum for all U.S. Senators hosted by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on September 13, 2023 .
Leah Millis | Portal
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is due to attend a deposition as part of an ongoing lawsuit in Texas involving the company's facial recognition technology.
Judge Jeff Rambin of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals for Texas said in a ruling Tuesday that the state court rejected Meta's latest petition “seeking relief from an order compelling Zuckerberg's oral testimony at an unspecified time.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit in February 2022, saying at the time that Meta “collected and used the biometric data of millions of Texans without properly obtaining their consent.” Lawyers representing Texas also said Meta violated the state's Deceptive Trade Practices Act by “failing to disclose information – including that it collects biometric identifiers – with the intent to do so to Facebook users in Texas to use Facebook that these users would not have done.” The information was disclosed.
In Tuesday's decision, the state of Texas alleged that Zuckerberg had “unique personal knowledge of discoverable information” relevant to his lawsuit and alleged that Meta violated state laws related to biometric data collection and deceptive trade practices.
Meta settled a facial recognition-related class action lawsuit in 2021 for $650 million. Lawyers said in a filing at the time that it was one of the “largest invasion of privacy settlements ever and would put at least $345 into the hands of every class member interested in compensation.”
Meta did not respond to a request for comment.
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