The More Frivolous of Texas’ Lawsuits Against Google/Facebook
There’s a lot that can be said about Facebook’s face recognition tech and Google’s ad practices. But Texas AG Paxton is shooting from the hip as he tries to hit the tech giant where it hurts. It often doesn’t work, and the lawsuits are nothing but little blips on a monolith like Google’s radar.
In January of this year, Paxton sued Google for allegedly breaking Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act by paying a company to have radio personalities record ads for its Pixel 4 when the DJs didn’t have their hands on the device.
This past February, Paxton unleashed a lawsuit against Meta for allegedly using its facial recognition tech to “exploit” Texans “billions of times.” Facebook had stopped using facial recognition tech last November, although that’s not a reason to not sue the social media giant. After all, the company has had to settle a class action lawsuit as well as an Illinois suit on the subject before. Facebook has said the augmented reality effects like avatars and filters is not facial recognition, but the company hasturned off augmented reality face filters for users in the state.
