Meta Platforms has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to Texas to settle the state’s lawsuit accusing the Facebook parent of illegally using facial recognition technology to collect the biometric data of millions of Texans without their consent.
The terms of the settlement, revealed Tuesday, mark the largest settlement ever by a single state, according to Texas lawyers, whose legal team included plaintiff firm Keller Postman.
The suit, filed in 2022, was the first major case brought under Texas’ 2009 biometric privacy law, according to law firms pursuing the litigation.
One provision of the law provides for damages of up to $25,000 per violation.
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 free, discontinued 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 business investments in Texas, including the development of potential data centers.”
She has continued to deny any wrongdoing.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement that the settlement marks the state’s “commitment to confront the world’s largest technology companies and hold them accountable for breaking the law and violating privacy rights of Texans.”
Texas and Meta said they reached a settlement in May, weeks before a trial began in state court.
Meta separately agreed to pay $650 million in 2020 to settle a biometrics privacy class action lawsuit that was brought under an Illinois privacy law considered one of the nation’s strictest.
The company also denied wrongdoing.
Alphabet’s Google is separately fighting a lawsuit from Texas accusing the company of violating the state’s biometrics law.
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