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Facebook owner Meta has agreed to pay $1.4bn to the state of Texas to settle claims that the company harvested millions of citizens’ biometric data without proper consent.
The settlement, to be paid over five years, is the largest ever obtained from an action brought by a single US state, said a statement from attorney-general Ken Paxton.
The original complaint filed by Paxton in February 2022 accused Facebook’s now-closed facial recognition system of collecting biometric identifiers from photos and videos posted on the platform without “informed consent”.
A spokesperson for Meta said: “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 centres.”
This is a developing story.