Meta has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit alleging it illegally used facial recognition technology to collect the biometric data of millions of Texas residents without their consent.
The terms of that lawsuit settlement were announced Tuesday, and Texas lawyers, including Keller Postman, who represents the plaintiff firm, said it was the largest settlement ever reached by any state.
The lawsuit, filed in 2022, was the first major case filed under Texas' 2009 biometric privacy law, according to lawsuits tracked by law firms. One provision of the law carries a fine of up to $25,000 for each violation.
Texas has accused Facebook of collecting biometric data "billions of times" from photos and videos users upload to the social media platform under a free and discontinued feature called Tag Suggestions.
A Meta spokesperson said the company is pleased to resolve the matter and looks forward to "exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas." The company continues to claim no wrongdoing.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement that the settlement demonstrates the state's "commitment to stand up to and hold the world's largest technology companies accountable for breaking the law and violating the privacy rights of Texans."
Texas and Meta said they had reached a settlement in May, just weeks before the lawsuit began in state court.
Meta also agreed in 2020 to pay $650 million to settle a biometric privacy class action lawsuit filed under Illinois' privacy law, one of the toughest privacy laws in the US. The company still claimed that it had not committed any wrongdoing.
Alphabet ( GOOGL ) is fighting a Texas lawsuit that accuses the company of violating a biometrics law.
