Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has agreed to a record $1.4 billion settlement with the US state of Texas over allegations that it illegally collected biometric data of millions of users without their permission, the largest fine ever imposed by a regulator against the tech giant.
“This historic settlement demonstrates our commitment to standing up to the world’s largest technology companies and holding them accountable for violating the law and violating the privacy rights of Texans,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said. “Any misuse of Texans’ sensitive data will be met with the force of the law.”
The development comes more than two years after the social media giant was sued for allegedly illegally collecting facial data from Texans without their consent, as required by law, though the Menlo Park-based company has denied any wrongdoing.
Originally introduced in 2010, the feature, called “Tag Suggestions,” was touted as a way for users to easily tag people in photos they shared on Facebook, but it was enabled by default without a full explanation of how it worked.
The lawsuit accuses Meta of violating the state’s Acquisition or Use of Biometric Identifiers (CUBI) Act and the Unfair Trade Practices Act.
“Unbeknownst to most Texans, for over a decade Mehta ran facial recognition software on nearly every face in photos uploaded to Facebook, recording the facial shapes of the people in the photos,” a press statement from the Attorney General’s office said.
“Mehta did so knowingly despite CUBI’s prohibition on companies capturing biometric information from Texas residents, including records of facial geometry, unless the companies provide prior notice to the individual and obtain consent to the collection of that biometric information.”
In November 2021, Meta announced it would phase out its “facial recognition” system entirely, deleting its vast collection of facial recognition templates for over 1 billion users, as part of a broader effort to limit use of the technology across its products.
That same year, the company agreed to pay $650 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed in Illinois in 2015 under the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) over similar claims related to its facial recognition systems.
Meta isn’t the only company Texas has targeted over biometric data collection: The state sued Google in October 2022 for violating the same biometric privacy law by collecting voice and facial data through products like Google Photos, Google Assistant, and Nest Hub Max. The case is currently ongoing.
