Meta Makes $1.4 billion settlement: The leading tech company ‘Meta’ has accepted to pay a $1.4 billion settlement in a Texas lawsuit that was filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in February 2022.
Meta Social Media Platform ‘Facebook’ was accused by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of improper use of biometric data in uploaded images and videos without the permission of the Texas people.
Paxton said that after Facebook added a new feature known as “Tag Suggestions” it stored millions of Texas users biometric data without permission.
In a statement, Ken Paxton’s office noted, “Unbeknownst to most Texans, for more than a decade Meta ran facial recognition software on virtually every face contained in the photographs uploaded to Facebook, capturing records of the facial geometry of the people depicted.”
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Earlier, Ken Paxton said that a Illinois judge received $650 million from the company to settle a similar lawsuit in Illinois.
Ken office further noted that the company knew about the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act that says that companies can’t hold Texans’ biometric details without their permission but still the company this on purpose.
Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit in state district court in Texas and this is the biggest legal settlement ever registered in state.
On Tuesday, in a statement Ken Paxton added, “This historic settlement demonstrates our commitment to standing up to the world’s biggest technology companies and holding them accountable for breaking the law and violating Texans’ privacy rights.”
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“Any abuse of Texans’ sensitive data will be met with the full force of the law.”
CNBC reported that a company spokesman told them, “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.”
According to the reports, Facebook in 2019 discontinued automatically recognizing people in picture, proposing that people “tag” them. The company changed the feature so that users could choose if they wanted to use the facial recognition feature or not.
On Tuesday, McKool Smith reported that both the parties has requested to halted the case proceedings now so that they could make the deal official
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