Meta (Facebook) has to pay 1.4 billion to Texas | Life & Knowledge

Meta has agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with the US state of Texas in a legal dispute over privacy protection. The accusation: The tech giant is said to have used users' biometric data without their consent.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the settlement was the largest ever reached by a single state.

“This historic settlement demonstrates our commitment to standing up to the world’s largest technology companies and holding them accountable when they break the law and Data protection rights injure the Texans,” the officer said.

Meta itself commented on the huge payment with the following statement: “We are pleased to resolve this matter and we look forward to exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas, including the potential development of data centers.”

Unauthorized storage of biometric data

The Texas lawsuit, filed in 2022, accused Meta of violating a state law that prohibits the collection or sale of residents' biometric data, such as their face or fingerprint, without their consent.

In 2021, the company announced it would shut down its facial recognition system and delete the faceprints of more than a billion people amid growing concerns about the technology and its misuse by governments, police and others.

At that time, more than a third of daily active Facebook users had agreed to have their faces recognized by the social network's system. In 2019, Facebook stopped automatically recognizing people in photos and suggesting that they “tag” them. Instead, users are asked to decide for themselves whether they want to use the facial recognition feature.

The current $1.4 billion settlement is not the first case of its kind. In 2021, a judge approved a $650 million settlement with the company formerly known as Facebook over similar claims by users in Illinois. It remains to be seen whether other U.S. states will follow suit.