Meta has reached a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas in a privacy lawsuit concerning allegations that the company unlawfully utilized users’ biometric data without consent, officials announced on Tuesday. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton disclosed that this settlement represents the largest amount ever obtained by a single state. This agreement follows a 2021 case where a judge approved a $650 million settlement between the company, previously known as Facebook, and users in Illinois for similar claims.
Paxton, a Republican, emphasized the significance of this historic settlement in upholding Texans’ privacy rights and enforcing the law against major technology corporations that violate it. Meta, in response, expressed satisfaction in resolving the matter and discussed potential future business investments in Texas, possibly including the development of data centers.
The lawsuit filed in 2022 accused Meta of violating a Texas state law that prohibits the collection or sale of a resident’s biometric details, such as facial features or fingerprints, without their explicit approval. Notably, in 2021, Meta announced the discontinuation of its facial recognition system and the deletion of faceprints for over 1 billion individuals due to rising concerns over the technology’s misuse by various entities, including governments and law enforcement.
Previously, a significant portion of Facebook’s daily active users had opted for facial recognition by the platform. However, over time, Facebook made it easier for users to opt out of this feature as legal and regulatory scrutiny heightened. In 2019, Facebook ceased automatically identifying individuals in images and recommending tags, shifting the control over facial recognition to users, who could choose whether to activate the feature or not.
