Texas reaches a settlement with Meta for 1.4 billion dollar for unlawfully capturing people’s faces

The State of Texas has secured a 1.4 billion dollar settlement with Meta. The Menlo Park-based tech company captured and used biometric data of millions of Texans without their permission.

That’s a violation of Texas’ CUBI Act, which stands for ‘Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier’. The law has been in effect since 2009 and prohibits companies from using facial recognition software without the explicit consent from individuals.

In February 2022, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Meta for unlawfully capturing the biometric data of millions of Texans without first obtaining their informed consent as required by the CUBI Act and the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which goal is to protect Texas consumers against false or misleading business practices.

The lawsuit focused on a feature called Tag Suggestion, which gave Facebook users the option to tag people in photos and videos in order to improve the user experience. Meta automatically enabled this feature without first explaining to users how it worked. That way Meta was able to run facial recognition software and collect biometric information from its users for more than a decade.

Paxton says he hopes the settlement will serve as a warning to other companies.

“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,” he states in a press release.

Paxton has prioritized holding major tech companies accountable for violating consumer’s right to privacy by launching multiple lawsuits and aggressively enforcing privacy laws.

The Attorney General’s office is currently investigating the data collection and sharing practices of multiple car companies for potentially violating the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Kia, General Motors, Subaru and Mitsubishi received a so-called ‘civil investigative demand’ letter from the office’s consumer protection division in April.