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 it illegally collected the biometric data of millions of users without their permission, in one of the largest fines levied by regulators. 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 the privacy rights of Texans,” said Attorney General Ken Paxton said. “Any misuse of Texans’ confidential data will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law.”
The development comes more than two years after the social media giant’s launch sued for illegally capturing facial data belonging to Texas without their informed consent as required by law. However, the Menlo Park-based company has admitted no wrongdoing.
Tag Suggestions, as the feature was originally called when it was introduced in 2010, was marketed as a way for users to easily tag photos shared on Facebook with people’s names in them. However, it was enabled by default without a proper explanation of how it works.
The lawsuit accused Meta of violating state Biometric Identifier Capture or Use Rules (CUBES) and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
“Unbeknownst to most Texans, for more than a decade Meta has been running facial recognition software on virtually every face in photos uploaded to Facebook, recording the facial geometry of the people depicted,” the attorney general’s office said in a press release. .
“Meta did this despite the fact that CUBI prohibits businesses from capturing Texans’ biometric identifiers, including facial geometry records, unless the business first notifies the individual and obtains their consent to capture the biometric identifier.”
Meta in November 2021 said it was phasing out its Facial Recognition system entirely and removing its massive collection of more than a billion user facial recognition patterns as part of a broader initiative to limit the use of the technology in its products.
In the same year it agreed to pay $650 million in a 2015 Illinois class-action lawsuit under the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) over similar allegations related to its facial tagging system.
Meta isn’t the only party being attacked by Texas for collecting biometric data. The state too sued Google in October 2022 for allegedly 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 underway.
