Texas Lassos Meta for Illicit Collection of Biometric Information

Meta was forced pay $1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by the Texas Attorney General alleging that the company had covertly captured biometric information from Facebook users without their knowledge or consent. The settlement also requires the company to halt the “practice of capturing and using the personal biometric data of millions of Texans without the authorization required by law.” This settlement is the largest to stem from Meta’s photo facial recognition feature, but it is not the only one, with the company also settling a class action in Illinois for $650 million involving the same practices. A similar Texas state biometric privacy lawsuit against Google is ongoing.