The lawsuit, filed in Harrison County, came one day after Paxton’s office opened a separate privacy investigation into the company’s smart glasses, which can record audio and video.
“Meta has a rich track record of (i) choosing profit and ‘efficiency’ over meaningful user protections; and (ii) speaking in half-truths (at best) when it comes to reporting breaches or other potentially negative information to the public, investors, and regulators,” states the lawsuit.
Paxton’s lawsuit follows Bloomberg reporting on the issue and cites interviews with government officials and a whistleblower complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission. It also overlaps with allegations in a similar January lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco by plaintiffs from South Africa, Mexico and other countries.
“Texans deserve to know whether their private communications are indeed truly private,” Paxton said in a news release.
Paxton’s suit includes no original technical or forensic analysis, but alleges the company is violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices–Consumer Protection Act.
“WhatsApp cannot access people’s encrypted communications and any suggestion to the contrary is false. We will fight this suit as we continue defending our strong record on protecting people’s messages,” said Rachel Holland of Meta Public Affairs.
Both lawsuits are heavily concerned with Meta’s past conduct, citing illegal data harvesting done by Cambridge Analytica a decade ago, Federal Trade Commission violations resulting in a consent decree before that, and billions of dollars in fines the company has incurred over the past 15 years for privacy violations. Paxton points to his own $1.4 billion settlement against the company for collecting biometric data.
The investigation into Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses follows broader scrutiny of Meta’s privacy practices. The company’s artificial intelligence glasses allow for real-time translation, phone calls and audio and video recording that can be used by other Meta platforms.
Paxton says the company may be collecting facial data in violation of Texas law and alleges that Meta contractors at Sama in Kenya can access video recordings without users’ knowledge.
The Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet first reported those allegations, citing interviews with 30 Sama employees.
Meta said in an email that privacy is core to all of its products. It has disclosed in the past that data is only available to Meta when shared with the company, otherwise it remains on the local device.
“We’re ready to address the questions Attorney General Paxton has raised, which appear to come from reporting that doesn’t reflect the full picture of our work,” Holland said.