A group of parents and their children in Illinois and California have filed a proposed class action against Meta in federal court in Chicago, alleging the company unlawfully used their Facebook and Instagram photos to train generative AI models and to build an unreleased face recognition feature for its smart glasses known as NameTag. The suit was filed in the week before 11 September 2026, when WIRED first reported on it.
What the complaint alleges
The complaint alleges that Meta violated Illinois and California privacy laws by extracting biometric information from people's photos without notice or consent. The named plaintiffs are Francisco Alvarez and his son, both Illinois residents, and Jeremy Wahl, a California resident, and his 10-year-old daughter. The proposed class covers people in Illinois, California and across the United States whose images were uploaded to Facebook or Instagram, or submitted to Meta's generative AI systems through prompts, dating back to 4 September 2021. The complaint estimates the national class could number in the millions.
Under Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act, the plaintiffs seek $5,000 for each intentional or reckless violation, or actual damages if greater, and $1,000 for each negligent violation, or actual damages if greater, as well as injunctive relief. The California claims seek additional damages and other relief.
The NameTag background
WIRED reported in June 2026 that code for NameTag had been embedded in the Meta glasses AI companion app, which had been downloaded more than 50 million times. The feature was not enabled for users, but the analysis found the system was designed to turn faces captured by the glasses into biometric signatures and compare them with faceprints stored in a database on the user's phone, a database configured to receive updates from Meta. At the time, WIRED could not determine where the underlying faceprint data came from.
The complaint alleges the faceprints are possibly derived from Facebook and Instagram images, citing reporting that Meta employees claimed NameTag could recognise people through their Meta connections or public Instagram accounts, along with a company patent describing face matching against profile photos and other images held by Meta. The complaint acknowledges that Meta has not disclosed which images, if any, were used to generate biometric data, saying that information remains solely in the company's possession.
The day after WIRED's report of 4 June 2026, Meta removed the code from its app. The company argued the feature never existed because it was not available to consumers, even though WIRED's analysis and testing by outside researchers found a technically functional face recognition system shipped inside the app. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth called the reporting "incredibly misleading" and "absolutely dishonest". Weeks later, on a podcast, Bosworth described NameTag as a feature that could recognise people a glasses wearer had previously met and asked the device to remember, adding: "I think [it] would be a great feature."
The image generation claims
The suit also targets Meta's image generation systems. Meta has said it trained Emu on large quantities of Facebook and Instagram images and text, with chief product officer Chris Cox describing those platforms as a "data advantage" for its AI systems. The complaint alleges the training process illegally harvested biometric information about people who appeared in the images. Muse Image, released in the summer of 2026, had earlier drawn criticism after allowing users to generate images based on other people's public Instagram accounts, a feature Meta removed within days, saying it had "missed the mark".
Meta's response and earlier cases
"This lawsuit is without merit and misrepresents our work," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. "We've been transparent about how we use people's information to build and improve our AI products. As for NameTags, nothing has shipped to consumers and no final decision has been made on what to do here, if anything." The spokesperson added: "One decision we can be clear about, we are not building a universal face database."
Justin Boley, a partner at Wexler Boley & Elgersma and an attorney for the plaintiffs, said: "People shouldn't have to worry if their biometric information will be misused simply because their photographs appear on a social media platform."
Meta has faced biometric claims before. In 2020 it agreed to pay $650 million to settle an Illinois class action over an earlier face recognition system, and in November 2021 it announced it would shut that system down and delete more than a billion faceprints. In 2024, Meta agreed to pay Texas $1.4 billion to resolve separate allegations that it had unlawfully collected biometric data from users.
What is established and what is merely claimed
Established: the lawsuit exists, was filed in federal court in Chicago, and names the plaintiffs and proposed class described above. WIRED's June 2026 analysis found functional NameTag code inside an app downloaded more than 50 million times, and Meta removed that code the day after publication. Meta has confirmed it trained Emu on Facebook and Instagram images and text, and it has previously agreed to pay $650 million and $1.4 billion to resolve earlier biometric claims in Illinois and Texas.
Merely claimed: that Meta extracted biometric information from users' photos without consent, that NameTag faceprints are derived from Facebook and Instagram images, and that the Emu and Muse Image training processes harvested biometric data. The complaint itself acknowledges Meta has not disclosed which images, if any, were used to generate biometric data. Meta denies the allegations and says the suit is without merit. No court has ruled on any of these claims.