Meta Agrees to Pay $1.4 Billion to Texas to Settle Facial Recognition Lawsuit
TapTechNews July 31st news, social media giant Meta has agreed to pay $1.4 billion (TapTechNews note: currently about 10.147 billion yuan) to the state of Texas to settle a lawsuit accusing it of illegally using facial recognition technology. The lawsuit alleges that Meta collected the biometric data of millions of Texas residents without consent using this technology. This is by far the largest legal settlement received by a single US state.
The lawsuit was filed in 2022 and is the first major case filed under Texas' 2009 Biometric Identifier Capture or Use Act. The law stipulates a maximum fine of $25,000 per violation, and Texas alleges that Meta violated this law billions of times by marking users' photos and videos uploaded to Facebook without consent.
In addition, there is an additional $10,000 fine for each count for alleged violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. In other words, considering the huge number of alleged violations and the maximum fine of $35,000 per time, Meta can be said to have saved a lot of money.
A spokesperson for Meta told Reuters that the company is pleased to have reached a settlement and said it is exploring future deepening business investment in Texas, including potentially developing a data center. However, the company still denies any wrongdoing, even though it has shut down its automated facial recognition system.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton declared in an official statement that the state is firmly confronting the world's largest technology companies and holding them accountable for illegal and privacy violations. Texas and Meta reached this settlement agreement just weeks before the start of the court trial.
This is not the first time Meta has paid a huge sum to a state for alleged collection of biometric data. In 2020, the company agreed to pay $650 million to the state of Illinois to settle a similar class action lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that the company violated a privacy law that requires the company to obtain explicit consent before collecting users' biometric data. Again, Meta denies any wrongdoing.