Three US lawsuits target AI and facial data

Users in the US have filed a series of class action lawsuits against AI companies. At the core, according to the plaintiffs, is that the companies used facial data without asking permission. All three cases below are the plaintiffs' allegations. No court has ruled on anything.

The law behind the cases

The cases rely on BIPA, a 2008 biometrics law in the US state of Illinois. Biometric data is information about the body that can be used to recognize a person, for example the shape and proportions of a face. The law requires written notice and consent before such data is collected. It also requires a public policy on how long data is kept and when it is deleted.

Grok: From selfie to face measurement

On October 7, 2026, Cesar Padilla of Illinois filed suit in federal court in the Northern District of Illinois. The case targets SpaceXAI Corp. and SpaceXAI LLC, which operate the AI assistant Grok.

Padilla states that he uploaded a selfie to get a portrait photo. He alleges that Grok automatically detected his face and extracted geometric data about its contours without written consent. The measurements were allegedly tied to his account without a disclosed retention policy.

According to a blog that recounts the case, the core of the theory is that ordinary photographs are exempt from BIPA, while extracted facial geometry is covered. Padilla seeks damages, an injunction against continued collection, and deletion of the collected data. He wants to represent all users in Illinois who uploaded their own face photos to Grok.

Meta: Smart glasses and image models

On September 4, 2026, the case Alvarez et al. v. Meta Platforms was filed in the same court. The plaintiffs allege that Meta used facial images and biometric information from Facebook and Instagram to develop facial recognition and generative AI systems without the required notice and consent.

The complaint covers the NameTag smart glasses feature and the image models Emu and Muse Image. The plaintiffs allege that Meta created biometric signatures of faces captured with Meta glasses and compared them with images from Meta's platforms. The claims are also based on California privacy law. The case is at the complaint stage.

Lensa: An older case with the same theme

In February 2023, a similar case was filed against Prisma Labs, the company behind the Lensa app. Users uploaded 8-20 face photos to have avatars created. The plaintiffs alleged that users were not adequately informed about the collection of facial geometry, and that the company removed language about training neural networks on facial data. They also alleged that the app used "dark patterns," meaning design tricks, to push users into paid subscriptions. The sources do not say how the case ended.

For readers, the cases show that the question of what happens to the face in an uploaded photo is now being tested in the courts.