On July 30, 2024, the Texas Attorney General’s Office announced a $1.4 billion settlement of biometric privacy claims brought against Meta arising from Meta’s historical use of facial recognition technology on photographs posted to Facebook’s social media platform.
According to the Texas Attorney General Office’s announcement, this was the first lawsuit and first settlement of any litigation brought under Texas’s Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier (CUBI) Act. Notably, the settlement came as the Texas Supreme Court was being asked to consider whether the trial court properly permitted a deposition of Meta Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg to proceed.
Meta’s settlement payments will be made over five years in accordance with an agreed final judgment executed by the Texas District Court. The agreed final judgment also includes detailed provisions allowing Meta to confer with the Texas Attorney General’s Office regarding the application or requirements of the Act in the future.
It remains to be seen whether the Act will see broader enforcement in Texas given that the law only permits action by the Texas Attorney General’s Office. To date, it appears that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has focused his enforcement efforts on two of the largest technology companies in the United States: Google and Meta. Nonetheless, compliance with the Act is relatively straightforward, and companies should continue to monitor their compliance with the Act and other biometric privacy laws moving forward.