03:39 PM EDT, 07/30/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Meta Platforms ( META ) has reached a $1.4 billion agreement with Texas to settle the state's lawsuit accusing the Facebook parent of using facial recognition technology to gather biometric data of users without their consent, Attorney General Ken Paxton said Tuesday.

The social-media giant launched a tag suggestions feature in 2011, claiming it would help users tag photos with the names of people appearing in the picture. The company automatically enabled the feature for all Texans without explaining how it worked, the attorney general's office said in a Tuesday statement.

"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," according to the statement.

The company did this despite knowing that Texas' Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act forbids firms from collecting biometric identifiers of users without their prior consent, Paxton's office said. Paxton sued Meta in February 2022.

"After vigorously pursuing justice for our citizens whose privacy rights were violated by Meta's use of facial recognition software, I'm proud to announce that we have reached the largest settlement ever obtained from an action brought by a single state," Paxton said.

Meta will pay the $1.4 billion to Texas over five years, according to the statement.

"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," a spokesperson for Meta told MT Newswires in an e-mailed response.

The settlement agreement includes a provision that there was no wrongdoing on part of the company.

Meta said in late 2021 that it would shut down its face recognition system on Facebook amid "growing concerns about the use of this technology as a whole."

The company is scheduled to report second-quarter financial results Wednesday. Analysts polled by Capital IQ are looking for earnings of $4.76 a share on revenue of $38.31 billion. In the second quarter of 2023, the company posted EPS of $2.98 on revenue of $32 billion.

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