A set of parents and their children in Illinois and California have filed a lawsuit against Meta, alleging that the company illegally used their Facebook and Instagram photos to train its AI and face-recognition systems. The lawsuit claims Meta violated privacy laws by extracting biometric information from people’s photos without notice or consent.

The proposed class action targets Meta’s unreleased face-recognition system, NameTag, for its smart glasses, as well as its image-generation systems, Emu and Muse Image. The complaint cites internal reports that suggest the training data for these systems came from Facebook and Instagram images, potentially including public profiles.

Meta has previously faced fines over its handling of biometric data, agreeing to pay $650 million in 2020 to settle an Illinois class action and $1.4 billion in 2024 to resolve separate allegations. In June 2026, the company removed the code for NameTag from its app, but the feature was technically functional and downloaded by millions.

The plaintiffs, including Francisco Alvarez and his son from Illinois and Jeremy Wahl and his 10-year-old daughter from California, are seeking millions of dollars in damages and injunctive relief under Illinois and California privacy laws.