financetom
Business
financetom
/
Business
/
Meta to pay $1.4 billion to settle Texas facial recognition data lawsuit
News World Market Environment Technology Personal Finance Politics Retail Business Economy Cryptocurrency Forex Stocks Market Commodities
Meta to pay $1.4 billion to settle Texas facial recognition data lawsuit
Jul 31, 2024 12:39 AM

(Reuters) -Meta Platforms has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to Texas to resolve the state's lawsuit accusing the Facebook parent of illegally using facial-recognition technology to collect biometric data of millions of Texans without their consent.

The terms of the settlement, disclosed on Tuesday, mark the largest accord ever by any single state, according to the lawyers for Texas, whose legal team included the plaintiffs firm Keller Postman.

The lawsuit, filed in 2022, was the first major case to be brought under Texas' 2009 biometric privacy law, according to law firms tracking the litigation. A provision of the law provides damages of up to $25,000 per violation.

Texas accused Facebook of capturing biometric information "billions of times" from photos and videos that users uploaded to the social media platform as part of a free, discontinued feature called "Tag Suggestions."

A spokesperson for Meta said the company is pleased to resolve the matter and looks forward to "exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas, including potentially developing data centers."

It has continued to deny any wrongdoing.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a statement said the settlement marks the state's "commitment to standing up to the world's biggest technology companies and holding them accountable for breaking the law and violating Texans' privacy rights."

Texas and Meta said they reached an accord in May, weeks before the start of a trial in state court was scheduled to begin.

Meta separately agreed to pay $650 million in 2020 to settle a biometric privacy class action that was brought under an Illinois privacy law that is considered one of the nation's most stringent. The company also denied wrongdoing.

Alphabet's Google separately is fighting a lawsuit by Texas accusing the company of violating the state's biometric law.

Comments
Welcome to financetom comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Related Articles >
Adidas says Q2 sales excluding Yeezy rose in North America
Adidas says Q2 sales excluding Yeezy rose in North America
Jul 31, 2024
* North America sales including Yeezy fall 8% in Q2 * Inventories shrink 18% year-on-year as of June 30 * Apparel sales boosted by international soccer tournaments (Adds inventories in paragraphs 5-6, detail on sales in paragraphs 7-9, outlook comment in paragraph 11) By Linda Pasquini and Paolo Laudani July 31 (Reuters) - Adidas said on Wednesday its second-quarter revenues...
French company Veolia to sell sulfuric acid regeneration business in North America
French company Veolia to sell sulfuric acid regeneration business in North America
Jul 31, 2024
PARIS, July 31 (Reuters) - French group Veolia said it had agreed to sell its sulfuric acid regeneration business in North America to private equity firm American Industrial Partners for an enterprise value (EV) of $620 million. The disposal of Veolia North America Regeneration Services, which includes its sulfuric acid and hydrofluoric acid regeneration activities for refineries, forms part of...
New US rule on foreign chip equipment exports to China to exempt some allies, sources say
New US rule on foreign chip equipment exports to China to exempt some allies, sources say
Jul 31, 2024
(Corrects paragraph 5 to remove the word countries) By Karen Freifeld NEW YORK (Reuters) -The Biden administration plans to unveil a new rule next month that will expand U.S. powers to stop exports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment from some foreign countries to Chinese chipmakers, two sources familiar with the rule said. But shipments from allies that export key chipmaking equipment...
Mizuho posts 17.9% Q1 earnings increase, bolstered by Japan's end to deflation
Mizuho posts 17.9% Q1 earnings increase, bolstered by Japan's end to deflation
Jul 31, 2024
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's third-largest lender by assets, Mizuho Financial Group ( MFG ), reported 17.9% growth in first-quarter profit on Wednesday as the long-awaited end of negative interest rates lifted profit margins on lending. For the April-June quarter, Mizuho reported group net profit of 289 billion yen ($1.89 billion), compared with 245 billion yen in the same period a...
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.financetom.com All Rights Reserved