Meta agrees to $1.4B settlement with Texas in facial recognition lawsuit

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has secured a $1.4 billion settlement from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, over allegations that the company violated a Texas state privacy law by collecting users' biometric data without consent. This settlement is reportedly the largest ever obtained by a single state in the US. The lawsuit claimed that Meta enabled its software to recognize and "tag" people in photos without obtaining users' permission. The settlement is to be paid over five years and marks one of the largest penalties levied against Meta by regulators. In comparison, a similar lawsuit in Illinois in 2021 resulted in a $650 million settlement.