TEXAS, USA — Facebook parent company Meta has reached a $1.4 billion settlement in a suit brought by the State of Texas that alleged that the social media network illegally captured facial recognition data of its users, starting in 2011.
The lawsuit was filed in 2022 by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and alleged that Facebook violated the state's Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier (CUBI) Act, which was passed into law in 2009.
In a press release sent Tuesday, Paxton said "This historic settlement demonstrates our commitment to standing up to the world's biggest technology companies and holding them accountable for breaking the law and violating Texans' privacy rights. Any abuse of Texans' sensitive data will be met with the full force of the law."
The CUBI Act states that in order to utilize biometrics for business purposes, individuals and/or companies must give fair warning and receive consent ahead of time. They are also not permitted to sell or share personal identifiers – such as fingerprints and eye scans – unless under specific circumstances.
Utilizing CUBI, Paxton claimed the technology company secretly obtained data of millions of Texans without their prior knowledge by using the "tag" feature when sharing photographs.
Once a person was tagged in a photo, Meta was able to scan their faces to keep for its records. This started in 2011, just five years after Facebook became accessible to to the general public.
The Texas Attorney General's Office worked alongside Austin-based mitigation firm McKool Smith and the law firm of Keller Postman to secure the settlement for Texas.
This is the largest settlement procured not just by a state's attorney general, but also by a U.S. state to date, according to Paxton. Paxton also said it's the first-ever settlement acquired using CUBI as a driving factor.
A Meta spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday, “We are pleased to resolve this matter, and look forward to exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas, including potentially developing data centers.”
Most of the money awarded in the settlement will go to the State of Texas general revenue fund in five installments, with the first installment of $500 million due within the next 30 days.