Tech giant Meta on Tuesday said it has agreed to pay Texas $1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by the state accusing the company of illegally using facial recognition software on its customers.
Texas accused Meta in 2022 of violating the state’s 2009 Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier law, which requires companies to ask permission before capturing facial data on customers.
The law lets the state impose a $25,000 fine for each violation.
Meta and Texas reached the $1.4 billion deal in May, and it was finalized this week. According to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the settlement is the largest ever won by a single state.
According to Texas, Meta violated the law billions of times by collecting data on pictures uploaded by customers through a discontinued feature called tag suggestions.
“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,” Mr. Paxton said of the settlement. “Any abuse of Texans’ sensitive data will be met with the full force of the law.”
Meta admitted no wrongdoing, adding in a statement, “We are pleased to resolve this matter and look forward to exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas, including potentially developing data centers.”
Meta settled a similar class-action lawsuit in 2020 for $650 million under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. The company admitted no wrongdoing in that case as well.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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