Janice R. Andrews
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, and the state of Texas reached a $1.4 billion settlement on claims of unauthorized biometric data collecting. The case, which resulted in the highest financial compensation ever paid to a single state, alleged that Meta had obtained biometric data from millions of Texans without their consent by using facial recognition technology.
The lawsuit, which was filed in 2022, was the first big case under Texas’s 2009-enacted Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act. Penalties under this statute might reach $25,000 for each infraction. Texas accused Meta of breaking this law billions of times by employing face recognition software to tag images and videos that users submitted to Facebook without their permission.
The Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act was also used in the complaint, with fines of up to $10,000 for each infraction. Meta’s settlement avoided a far larger financial penalty, perhaps saving the corporation billions of dollars, considering the sheer number of alleged infractions.
According to a Meta representative who talked with Reuters, the company is happy that the issue has been handled and is thinking about making further corporate investments in Texas, such as building data centers. Even with the compensation, Meta has closed its automatic facial recognition technology and denies any misconduct.
In expressing his pleasure with the settlement, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton emphasized the state’s resolve to hold big technology firms responsible for breaking the law and violating people’s privacy. When the complaint was first brought, Paxton declared, “Facebook will no longer take advantage of people and their children with the intent to turn a profit at the expense of one’s safety and well-being.” He emphasized that this case is just one more example of Big Tech’s dishonest business methods and that these practices must end.
A protracted and expensive legal struggle was avoided by both sides thanks to the settlement, which was struck just a few weeks before the case was scheduled to go to trial.
This is not Meta’s first large settlement due to claims of collecting biometric data. The business and the state of Illinois reached a $650 million settlement in 2020 as part of a class action lawsuit. In that action, Meta was also charged with breaking privacy regulations by gathering biometric data without the express agreement of the user. Similar to the Texas case, Meta chose to settle rather than go to trial and denied any wrongdoing.
The $1.4 billion settlement that Meta reached with Texas is a clear indication of the increasing scrutiny that digital firms are subject to with regard to user privacy and data protection. Future legal battles and financial fines for IT companies like Meta are expected to increase as regulatory agencies continue to crack down on unlawful data harvesting methods.
