Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to the state of Texas to settle a lawsuit alleging the illegal use of facial-recognition technology to collect biometric data from millions of Texans without their consent.
This settlement, disclosed on Tuesday, marks the largest ever by a single state, according to Texas’ legal team, which included the plaintiffs’ firm Keller Postman.
Filed in 2022, the lawsuit was the first major case under Texas’ 2009 biometric privacy law, which permits damages of up to $25,000 per violation. Texas claimed that Facebook captured biometric information billions of times from photos and videos uploaded by users as part of the now-discontinued “Tag Suggestions” feature.
A Meta spokesperson expressed satisfaction with the settlement and hinted at potential business investments in Texas, including the development of data centers. However, Meta continues to deny any wrongdoing, Reuters news report said.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stated that the settlement demonstrates the state’s commitment to holding major technology companies accountable for legal violations and privacy infringements.
The agreement was reached in May, just weeks before a trial was scheduled to begin in state court. This is not the first time Meta has faced similar legal challenges; in 2020, the company agreed to pay $650 million to settle a biometric privacy class action under Illinois law, one of the strictest in the country, while still denying wrongdoing.
In a related case, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is currently contesting a lawsuit by Texas over similar allegations of violating the state’s biometric law.
