Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has agreed to pay Texas $1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit alleging the company illegally collected biometric data from millions of Texans.
The lawsuit, filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2022, claimed Meta used facial recognition software on photos uploaded to Facebook without obtaining users’ consent.
This practice, according to the state, violated a 2009 Texas law that protects biometric data like fingerprints and facial scans.
The settlement marks a significant victory for Paxton, who described it as the largest ever obtained by a single state and the largest privacy settlement secured by a state attorney general. The funds will be paid over five years.
Meta’s Tag Suggestions feature, which used facial recognition to automatically suggest friends to tag in photos, was at the center of the lawsuit. The company has since discontinued this feature.
The settlement highlights growing concerns about privacy and data protection, particularly in the tech industry.
