Meta to Settle $1.4 Billion Lawsuit with Texas Over Biometric Privacy Violations

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement in a lawsuit by the state of Texas over an alleged illegal use of facial recognition technology.

The lawsuit was filed in 2022, accusing Facebook of collecting millions of Texans’ biometric data without their consent, violating Texas’s 2009 biometric privacy law.

According to Texas’ legal team, including the law firm Keller Postman, this settlement is the largest involving a single state.

A 2009 law allows for damages of $25,000 per violation, which Texas claimed occurred “billions of times” through Facebook’s “Tag Suggestions” feature.

This feature, now disabled, used facial recognition technology to suggest tags for people in photos and videos that users uploaded.

In another case, Meta was recently fined $220 million by Nigeria’s FCCPC.

The Nigerian consumer protection agency has accused Meta of many infringements, such as denying Nigerian users control over their data, sharing users’ data without authorisation, and abusing its dominant market position.

The FCCPC alleged unauthorised transfer and cross-border storage of users’ data relating to Nigerians, discrimination, abuse of dominance, and tying and bundling practices.

However, Meta disagreed with the Nigerian agency’s decision and fine, stating that they had explained globally in 2021 how their business interactions would work, and, despite initial confusion, the feature has proven popular.

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