Meta to pay Texas $1.4bn for biometric data breach

Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, has agreed to pay $1.4bn to settle a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas over the illegal use of facial-recognition technology to collect biometric data of millions of Texans without their consent.

This landmark agreement, reported by Reuters on Tuesday, is the largest of its kind with a single state, according to Texas’ legal team, which included the law firm Keller Postman.

The lawsuit, filed in 2022, was the first major case to be brought under Texas’ 2009 biometric privacy law, according to law firms tracking the litigation. A provision of the law provides damages of up to $25,000 per violation.

Texas accused Facebook of capturing biometric information “billions of times” from photos and videos that users uploaded to the social media platform as part of a free, discontinued feature called “Tag Suggestions.
In a parallel issue, the social media giant was fined $220m by Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission a few weeks ago.

The Nigerian consumer protection watchdog headed by the acting Executive Chairman, Adamu Abdullahi, said that Meta had denied Nigerian users control over their data, shared data without consent, and abused its market dominance.

“Denying Nigerian data subjects the right to self-determine; unauthorised transfer and sharing of Nigerian data subjects personal data, including cross-border storage in violation of then, and now prevailing law; discrimination and disparate treatment; abuse of dominance; and tying and bundling,” FCCPC said.

Meta disagrees with the decision and the fine, stating that in 2021, they explained to users globally how talking to businesses would work, and while there was initial confusion, it has proven quite popular.