Texas secures $1.4 billion settlement with Meta over unauthorized capture of biometric data

What happened

On 30 July 2024 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta over its Tag Suggestions feature, which captured facial-geometry data from millions of Texans without the consent Texas law requires, in place since 2011. Meta will pay $1.4 billion over five years, the first $500 million within 30 days. Texas calls it the largest settlement ever obtained from an action brought by a single state, and the largest privacy settlement an Attorney General has ever obtained. Meta admitted no wrongdoing. Texas sued in February 2022 under the Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Why it may matter to you

This is the largest single-state privacy settlement on record, and it concerns a platform capturing biometric data from people's photos without consent — the kind of large-scale use of personal data that this site tracks.

What is not yet known

Whether other states bring similar biometric claims against Meta is not stated in the announcement.