Meta agrees to $1.4 billion settlement in Texas biometric data lawsuit over Facebook images Meta agreed to pay a record $1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit by the state of Texas over the Facebook owner’s unauthorized use of biometric data by users, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Tuesday. The suit, filed by Paxton in February 2022, accused Meta of capturing and using the biometric data of millions of Texas residents — which was contained in uploaded photos and videos on Facebook — without legally required permissions. The attorney general’s office said Facebook stored billions of biometric identifiers without customers’ consent after introducing a new feature in 2011 called “Tag Suggestions.” “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,” Paxton’s office said. The office said that Meta did this despite knowing that Texas’ Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act bars companies from capturing biometric identifiers of Texans without first informing them and obtaining their consent.