Meta to pay US$1.4b to settle Texas facial recognition lawsuit
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The news: The state of Texas secured a USD1.4 billion ($2.14 billion) settlement with Facebook’s parent Meta over its now-discontinued use of facial-recognition technology that breached privacy rights.
The numbers: The 2022 lawsuit was the first under Texas' 2009 biometric privacy legislation, which allows for damages of up to $25,000 per infraction.
Texas accused Facebook of capturing biometric information "billions of times" from photos and videos that users uploaded to the social media platform as part of a free, discontinued feature called "Tag Suggestions."
The context: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the deal, which requires Meta to pay the sum over five years, was the largest from an action brought by a single state and the first under Texas' biometric identifier law.
Meta has denied wrongdoing and on Tuesday told Reuters it was pleased to resolve the matter, adding it looks forward to “deepen” investments in Texas, including potentially developing data centres.
Texas has also sued Alphabet over alleged violations of the state’s biometric law. In 2020, Facebook settled a class-action lawsuit over similar claims in Illinois for USD650 million.
The sources: Ken Paxton statement, Reuters
