Meta to pay $1.4 billion settlement with Texas over facial recognition and photo tags
Image: The Verge
Texas announced a massive settlement with Meta over the use of facial recognition on Facebook, resolving a lawsuit filed in 2022 claiming that the “Tag Suggestions” feature on photos uploaded to Facebook violated the state’s Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier (CUBI) Act and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Meta has agreed to pay $1.4 billion over five years to settle the suit, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office said today.
It’s the largest settlement ever resulting from an action brought by a single state, according to Paxton. It’s also the first lawsuit and settlement under CUBI and serves as a warning to other companies in violation of the state’s privacy rights, he says.
“Any abuse of Texans’ sensitive data will be met with the full force of the law,” Paxton said in a press release.
At issue are suggestions Facebook made for tagging people on photos. “In 2011, Meta rolled out a new feature, initially called Tag Suggestions, that it claimed would improve the user experience by making it easier for users to ‘tag’ photographs with the names of people in the photo,” according to the press release.
That was two years after Texas passed the CUBI Act, which prohibits companies from capturing biometric data like face geometry without receiving prior informed consent. Facebook turned on tag suggestions automatically — “capturing and using the personal biometric data of millions of Texans without the authorization required by law,” the attorney general’s office says.
The suit initially sought $25,000 in civil penalties per CUBI violation plus an added $10,000 per violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, The Verge previously reported. Those penalties could have reached hundreds of billions of dollars, The Wall Street Journal reported in 2022.
The company did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement. In 2017, Facebook introduced an “on/off” control for tag suggestions, which it replaced with broader facial recognition settings in 2019. Then, it stopped automated facial tagging in photos in 2021.
“We are pleased to resolve this matter, and look forward to exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas, including potentially developing data centers,” Meta spokesperson Christopher Sgro said in an email.
Image: The Verge
Texas announced a massive settlement with Meta over the use of facial recognition on Facebook, resolving a lawsuit filed in 2022 claiming that the “Tag Suggestions” feature on photos uploaded to Facebook violated the state’s Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier (CUBI) Act and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Meta has agreed to pay $1.4 billion over five years to settle the suit, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office said today.
It’s the largest settlement ever resulting from an action brought by a single state, according to Paxton. It’s also the first lawsuit and settlement under CUBI and serves as a warning to other companies in violation of the state’s privacy rights, he says.
“Any abuse of Texans’ sensitive data will be met with the full force of the law,” Paxton said in a press release.
At issue are suggestions Facebook made for tagging people on photos. “In 2011, Meta rolled out a new feature, initially called Tag Suggestions, that it claimed would improve the user experience by making it easier for users to ‘tag’ photographs with the names of people in the photo,” according to the press release.
That was two years after Texas passed the CUBI Act, which prohibits companies from capturing biometric data like face geometry without receiving prior informed consent. Facebook turned on tag suggestions automatically — “capturing and using the personal biometric data of millions of Texans without the authorization required by law,” the attorney general’s office says.
The suit initially sought $25,000 in civil penalties per CUBI violation plus an added $10,000 per violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, The Verge previously reported. Those penalties could have reached hundreds of billions of dollars, The Wall Street Journal reported in 2022.
The company did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement. In 2017, Facebook introduced an “on/off” control for tag suggestions, which it replaced with broader facial recognition settings in 2019. Then, it stopped automated facial tagging in photos in 2021.
“We are pleased to resolve this matter, and look forward to exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas, including potentially developing data centers,” Meta spokesperson Christopher Sgro said in an email.