Meta to Pay $1.4 Billion in Landmark Texas Privacy Law Settlement

Texas AG Ken Paxton, in a recent press release, has secured the largest settlement ever claimed by a single state, $1.4 billion, from Meta (formerly known as Facebook).

In a recent X post, Paxton outlined the details of the settlement as well as the cause of this historic conflict between personal privacy and facial recognition.

This lawsuit first began in 2022 when Texas filed a lawsuit against Meta for "unlawfully capturing the biometric data of millions of Texans without obtaining their informed consent as required by Texas law", according to the release.

The conflict first began in 2011 when Meta (then called Facebook) implemented a new feature on their site where one can tag other users in photos. Meta was then archiving this information and storing facial recognition of Texas users without their knowledge or consent.

The press release also mentions that this happened for nearly 10 years before Texas filed a petition which Meta settled recently: less than two years after the petition was filed.

This agreed settlement means that Meta will now pay the grand total of $1.4 billion over a five year period to the state. It is unclear yet as to where this money will go and how it will be dispersed among Texas budgeting.