Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attends a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on online child sexual exploitation at the U.S. Capitol on January 31, 2024 in Washington, United States.
Evelyn Hochstein | Reuters
Yuan agree Pay $1.4 billion solve a litigation Depend on Texas Exceed Facebook The owner uses biometric data without the user’s authorization, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Tuesday.
The lawsuit, filed by Paxton in February 2022, accuses Meta of capturing and using the biometric data of millions of Texas residents, including photos and videos uploaded on Facebook, without the consent required by law. in the video).
The attorney general’s office said Facebook stored billions of biometric identifiers without customers’ consent after it launched a new feature called “tag suggestions” in 2011.
“What most Texans don’t know is that for more than a decade, Meta ran facial recognition software on nearly every face in photos uploaded to Facebook, capturing the features of the person depicted,” Paxton’s office said. Documentation of facial geometry.
The office said this was despite Meta’s knowledge that Texas’ Capture or Use of Biometric Identifiers Act prohibits companies from capturing Texans’ biometric identifiers without first notifying them and obtaining their consent. Done.
Paxton’s office said the settlement with Meta, which was filed in Harrison County District Court in Texas, is the largest legal settlement ever resulting from a single state action.
Meta will pay Texas $1.4 billion over five years, the office said.
“This historic settlement demonstrates our commitment to confronting the world’s largest technology companies and holding them accountable for breaking the law and violating Texans’ privacy rights,” Paxton said in a statement Tuesday about the Meta case.
“Any misuse of Texas’ sensitive data will be met with the full force of the law,” Paxton said.
A spokesperson for Meta told CNBC: “We are pleased to have resolved this issue and look forward to exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas, including the potential development of data centers.”
Although the settlement was reportedly announced on Tuesday, it was reached nearly two months ago, on the eve of a trial scheduled for June. McCool Smitha Texas-based law firm represented in the lawsuit, as well as Keller Mail & Co., Ltd.
McCoolsmith said Tuesday that the two sides had asked the judge overseeing the case at the time to halt proceedings so the parties could formalize the terms of the deal before announcing it.
Paxton’s office is continuing to letteraccuses Google’s owner of illegally collecting biometric data on millions of Texans.
