Meta to pay $1.4 billion in Texas facial recognition settlement

Social media giant Meta Platforms has agreed to a hefty $1.4 billion settlement with the state of Texas to resolve a lawsuit alleging the company’s misuse of facial recognition technology. The settlement marks a significant victory for Texas in its battle to protect consumer privacy.

The lawsuit, filed in 2022, accused Meta, the parent company of Facebook, of illegally collecting biometric data from millions of Texans without their explicit consent. This data was allegedly collected through a feature called “Tag Suggestions” which used facial recognition to identify people in photos.