Texas, Meta reach $1.4B settlement over facial recognition suit

Meta has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to Texas to settle a lawsuit alleging Facebook previously captured biometric data from users without their consent, the state attorney general’s office announced Tuesday.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said Meta will pay the massive sum over the course of five years, noting the settlement is “the largest ever obtained from an action” brought by just one state. Paxton filed the lawsuit in 2022, alleging that Meta collected and used the data from millions of Texas users without their permission.

“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,” Paxton said in a statement.

The office alleged Meta’s practices violated the state’s Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Paxton’s office pointed to Meta’s rollout of “Tag Suggestions” in 2011, saying Meta claimed it would make it easier for users to tag others in photos.

Paxton’s office said the feature was automatically turned on without notifying the users.

“Unbeknownst to most Texans, for more than a decade Meta ran facial recognition software on virtually every face contained in the photographs uploaded to Facebook, capturing records of the facial geometry of the people depicted,” Paxton’s office said.

Meta denied any wrongdoing at the time the lawsuit was filed, saying that the “claims are without merit.”

A spokesperson for the company told The Hill on Tuesday that the company was “pleased” to come to an agreement.

“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.”

One of the firms representing Texas, McKool Smith, said in a press release Tuesday that the parties agreed to settle the dispute on the eve of when the lawsuit was supposed to go to trial in June.

Facebook announced in 2021 that it would be shutting down its facial recognition system and deleting more than a billion people’s individual facial recognition templates. The company said at the time that the decision was made due to “growing concerns” about the use of such technology.