Meta Platforms to Pay Texas $1.4 Billion in Facial Recognition Settlement

Meta Platforms (META) agreed to a $1.4 cardinal colony complete its postulation of individual biometric information from Facebook users, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Tuesday.

Paxton sued nan societal media company, genitor of Facebook and Instagram, successful February 2022, claiming it captured nan information of millions of Texans “without obtaining their informed consent arsenic required by Texas law.”

Paxton said nan statement “is nan largest ever obtained from an action brought by a azygous State,” and nan first nether Texas’s Capture aliases Use of Biometric Identifier Act (CUBI). The institution will salary nan money complete a five-year period, Paxton said.

Shares of Meta were precocious down little than 1%. The institution is group to report its latest quarterly financial results tomorrow.

The lawsuit relates to Facebook’s “Tag Suggestions” launched successful 2011, which made it easier for users to “tag” photos pinch nan names of nan group successful those shots. Paxton based on that Meta “ran facial nickname package connected virtually each look contained successful nan photographs uploaded to Facebook, capturing records of nan facial geometry of nan group depicted.”

In a connection to Investopedia, Meta Platforms said that it was pleased to resoluteness nan matter, and that it looks guardant “to exploring early opportunities to deepen our business investments successful Texas, including perchance processing information centers.” It added that nan institution did not admit to immoderate wrongdoing. 

Shares of Meta Platforms person added astir a 3rd of their worth successful 2024.