Instagram users in Texas are no longer able to use some of the filters on the app. The change isn’t a glitch, but a deliberate move made by Meta, Instagram’s parent company, after it was sued by the state.

The change, which went into effect on Monday, occurred after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit in February accusing Facebook, which is owned by Meta, of misusing facial recognition technology, KHOU 11 reported.

The lawsuit accuses Facebook of having “unlawfully captured biometric identifiers,” or data pertaining to users’ physical characteristics, without their consent, according to court documents.

That practice violates the state’s Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act, or CUBI, which says that people must consent to their biometric identifiers being recorded, according to the lawsuit.

In a statement, Meta told McClatchy News that the technology it uses to power “augmented reality effects,” like filters, “is not facial recognition” and “is not used to identify anyone.”

The company previously used facial recognition data, but stopped doing so in November, the statement said. In a Nov 2, 2021 release, the company said that its choice to stop using facial recognition data represented “one of the largest shifts in facial recognition usage in the technology’s history.”

Meta said it does use facial recognition technology for some things, like to verify users’ identities or to prevent fraud and impersonation. However, users can opt in to that data collection, and “the many specific instances where facial recognition can be helpful need to be weighed against growing concerns about the use of this technology as a whole,” the company said.

Paxton’s lawsuit, however, accuses Meta of collecting users’ biometric information without their knowledge, and says that the state “has reason to believe that Facebook has engaged in, and will continue to engage in, the unlawful practices” of collecting biometric data.

The lawsuit adds that “sprawling databases” brimming with biometric information pose “an enormous risk that cyber criminals and other dangerous actors will access these unique identifiers and encroach into virtually every aspect of their owners’ lives.”

In response to the lawsuit, Meta said it turned off certain augmented reality filters on Instagram, Messenger, Messenger Kids, Facebook and Portal in Texas and Illinois, which filed a similar lawsuit against the company.

The company will also “introduce a new opt-in experience” that explains how augmented reality effects work as it resumes offering those features in Texas and Illinois. Meta did not say when these features will be available again.

Filters that don’t rely on users’ facial features, like ones that just change an image’s colour or background, are still available in Texas, CBS 19 reported.

The company’s move in Texas comes shortly after settlement checks were mailed out to more than 1.42 million Facebook users in Illinois, amounting to US$650mil . Those checks are the product of a 2015 lawsuit that accused the company of storing biometric data without users’ consent, NBC Chicago reported.

  - TNS