Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced a landmark $1.4 billion settlement with Meta, formerly known as Facebook, after the company was accused of violating user privacy.
In February 2022, Paxton sued Meta for capturing and using the biometric data of millions of Texans without properly obtaining their informed consent, in violation of Texas law. The company was accused of storing millions of biometric identifiers, defined by statute as “a retina or iris scan, fingerprint, voiceprint, or record of hand or face geometry,” contained in photos and videos uploaded by users of the social media app.
Paxton’s office noted that the settlement is the largest ever obtained from an action by a single state and the largest privacy settlement secured by an attorney general. In comparison, 40 states received a $390 million settlement from Google in 2022 over the tech giant’s location tracking practices.
“After vigorously pursuing justice for our citizens whose privacy rights were violated by Meta’s use of facial recognition software, I’m proud to announce that we have reached the largest settlement ever obtained from an action brought by a single state,” said Paxton. “This historic settlement demonstrates our commitment to standing up to the world’s biggest technology companies and holding them accountable for breaking the law and violating Texans’ privacy rights. Any abuse of Texans’ sensitive data will be met with the full force of the law.”
The lawsuit accused Meta of violating the state’s Capture or Use of Biometric Identifiers (CUBI) Act, as well as the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
In 2011, Meta introduced a new feature, Tag Suggestions which was promoted as a tool to enhance user experience by simplifying the process of tagging people in photographs. Unbeknownst to most Texans, Meta employed facial recognition software on nearly every face in the photos uploaded to Facebook, creating records of the facial geometry of those depicted. This feature was automatically activated for all users without an explanation of its functionality for more than a decade.
As part of the settlement, Meta will pay $1.4 billion to the state of Texas over five years.
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