Meta to Pay $1.4B in Texas Biometric Privacy Lawsuit

Meta’s record-breaking settlement in its biometric privacy dispute with the state of Texas has now been revealed: The company has agreed to pay out $1.4 billion.

That’s more than its previous two big biometric privacy settlements combined. In 2020, the company agreed to pay $550 million in a lawsuit over its “Tag Suggestions” feature, which used facial recognition to automatically identify people in photos uploaded to the social media platform. And it reached a $68.5 million settlement in a lawsuit concerning a similar feature used on its Instagram platform in 2022.

Both of those cases were brought under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, considered America’s most stringent biometric privacy law. BIPA entails a private right of action, meaning that individual consumers can file lawsuits against companies accused of violating BIPA’s provisions.

Texas’ Capture or Use of Biometric Identifiers Act (CUBI) is also considered one of the strongest biometric privacy laws in the country, but it has a different enforcement mechanism. Rather than allowing consumers to file claims, CUBI depends on the state’s Attorney General to take action.

So far, Meta and Google are the only companies to have been targeted by the state for biometric privacy violations. Meta’s case once again revolves around Facebook’s collection of biometric data, with the company alleged to have failed to obtain informed consent from subjects, and of having shared the biometric data with third parties, among other things.

Shortly after reports of Meta’s settlement began to emerge in June of this year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that his office had established a new team dedicated to enforcing CUBI, a move suggesting that his office’s success in the Facebook case had galvanized the state to pursue more targets.

Now, we have an exact monetary figure to help contextualize that response, with $1.4 billion destined for state coffers.

“After vigorously pursuing justice for our citizens whose privacy rights were violated by Meta’s use of facial recognition software, I’m proud to announce that we have reached the largest settlement ever obtained from an action brought by a single State,” Paxton said in a statement. “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.”

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July 30, 2024 – by Alex Perala