Texas Attorney General — Meta Platforms, Inc.
The Texas Attorney General secured a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta for unlawfully capturing and using the personal biometric data of millions of Texans through facial recognition software without authorization, violating the state's biometric privacy law.
Key takeaway — how to prevent this
Biometric data (faces, iris, fingerprints) needs an explicit lawful basis or consent. Scraping or capturing it without one is unlawful across the EU/UK and many US states (e.g. Illinois BIPA) — and draws the largest fines.
Case brief
Read from the authority's press release on 2026-09-18. Every holding carries a short verbatim quote from that text.
- Decided by
- Texas Attorney General
- Parties
- Texas Attorney General v. Meta
- Remedy
- Meta agreed to pay $1.4 billion over five years to the State of Texas to resolve litigation concerning unauthorized capture of personal biometric data.
- Amount
- $1,400,000,000
- Appeal
- Appeal status not stated
Key holdings
Texas secured a settlement with Meta stopping its unauthorized capture and use of personal biometric data.
“capturing and using the personal biometric data of millions of Texans without the authorization required by law.” — paragraph 1
Meta's data collection practices violated Texas biometric and consumer protection statutes.
“Specifically, Meta’s data collection violated Texas's "Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier" Act (“CUBI”) and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.” — paragraph 4
Meta deployed facial recognition software on photos uploaded to Facebook for over a decade without required notice and consent.
“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.” — paragraph 5
Meta will pay $1.4 billion over five years to settle the enforcement action.
“The company will pay the state of Texas $1.4 billion over five years.” — paragraph 5
In plain English
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta following an enforcement action under Texas law. In February 2022, Attorney General Paxton sued Meta for unlawfully capturing and using the personal biometric data of millions of Texans without informed consent. In 2011, Meta introduced a Tag Suggestions feature that automatically ran facial recognition software on photos uploaded to Facebook, capturing facial geometry records for over a decade. The state alleged that this practice violated Texas's Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, both of which prohibit capturing biometric identifiers without prior notice and consent. Under the terms of the settlement, Meta agreed to pay $1.4 billion over five years to the state of Texas. This settlement marks the largest privacy settlement ever obtained in an action brought by a single state, dwarfing a previous $390 million settlement obtained by a coalition of 40 states from Google in late 2022. The agreement concludes litigation approximately two years after the initial petition was filed.
Inclusion does not imply wrongdoing or liability. Status reflects the latest information we have — always check the official source for current status.