Meta faces class action over AI training data and secret face recognition feature

Meta is back in federal court over privacy, and this time the allegations go well beyond the usual data-sharing complaints. A class action lawsuit filed September 4, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois accuses the company of harvesting facial images and biometric data from Facebook and Instagram users, without telling them, to train generative AI models and build an internal facial recognition system called NameTag. The suit was filed by Wexler Boley & Elgersma LLP on behalf of Illinois resident Francisco Alvarez, California resident Jeremy Wahl, and others, including minors. The plaintiffs allege violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, known as BIPA, as well as California privacy statutes. What NameTag is, and why its existence is the problem NameTag is a facial recognition feature designed for use with Ray-Ban and Oakley AI smart glasses, meaning it would theoretically let someone point a pair of glasses at a stranger and identify them. Code for the feature was discovered in Meta’s companion app in early June 2026, then quietly removed after the discovery attracted media attention, including reporting from WIRED. The la...