Meta Platforms has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to the state of Texas to settle a state lawsuit accusing parent company Facebook of illegally using facial recognition technology to collect biometric data from millions of Texans without their consent.
The terms of the settlement mark the largest settlement ever reached by a single state, according to the Texas attorneys, whose legal team included the firm Keller Postman.
The lawsuit, filed in 2022, was the first major case brought under Texas’ 2009 biometric privacy law, according to law firms that monitor the litigation. A provision of the law provides for damages of up to $25,000 for each violation, writes Reuters.
Texas accused Facebook of capturing biometric information
Texas accused Facebook of capturing biometric information “billions of times” from photos and videos users uploaded to the social media platform as part of a discontinued free feature called “Tag Suggestions.”
A Meta spokesperson said the company is pleased to resolve the matter and looks forward to “exploring future opportunities to deepen our investment in Texas, including possible data center development.”
Meta continued to deny any wrongdoing.
In a statement, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the settlement marks “the state’s commitment to stand up to the world’s largest technology companies and hold them accountable for violating the law and the privacy rights of Texans”.
Meta has separately agreed to pay $650 million in 2020
Texas and Meta said they had reached a settlement in May, weeks before a trial began in national court.
Meta separately agreed to pay $650 million in 2020 to settle a biometrics privacy class action that was brought under an Illinois privacy law considered one of the strictest in the country. The company also denied wrongdoing.
Alphabet Google is separately fighting a lawsuit filed by Texas that accuses the company of violating the state’s biometrics law.
Source: www.descopera.ro
