(New throughout, adds Texas attorney general’s office announcing lawsuit, comment from Paxton)
WASHINGTON, Feb 14 (Reuters) – The Texas attorney general’s office sued Meta’s Facebook on Monday, alleging that the social media giant violated state privacy protections with facial-recognition technology that collected the biometric data of millions of Texans without their consent.
The lawsuit was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which cited a person familiar with the matter as saying that the state was seeking hundreds of billions of dollars in civil penalties.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit was filed in a state court in Marshall, Texas.
“This is yet another example of Big Tech’s deceitful business practices and it must stop. I will continue to fight for Texans’ privacy and security,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. (Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by David Gregorio)
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