Meta has settled a lawsuit for $1.4 million in Texas over it’s unauthorized facial recognition activity of users.
Meta, parent company of Facebook, doesn’t exactly have the greatest reputation when it comes to protecting people’s personal privacy. Between the 2019 data leak which saw 419 million accounts compromised, the other 2019 data leak which saw 267 million accounts compromised, and the 2021 data breach which saw 533 million accounts compromised, it’s little wonder why people think that privacy and Facebook are basically antonyms at this point. Obviously, this isn’t even close to covering all the privacy concerns that have surrounded Meta and Facebook.
Another one of the privacy scandals surrounding Meta occurred in 2021 when Meta was scanning everyone’s Facebook pictures and creating profiles of people without their authorization. As some of you know, facial recognition was all the rage among companies and organizations at the time. One of the most bandied about names was Clearview AI which had its own host of scandals at the time. Along the way, those scandals showcased why Canadian privacy laws are a sorry joke while enveloping the RCMP into the scandal in the process.
As revelations surfaced of unauthorized use of facial recognition software blew up, Facebook was also hit with a similar scandal. When it surfaced that Facebook was scanning people’s faces without authorization, they shut down their facial recognition efforts, deleting 1 billion profiles in the process. This happened in 2021, but the consequences of Meta engaging in this unauthorized activity wasn’t over.
Today, we are learning that Meta has settled with the state of Texas to the tune of $1.4 billion. From CNBC:
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.
The news is unlikely to temper concerns of privacy while using Meta platforms like Facebook. If anything, it’s going to remind people that Meta has a huge amount of baggage over its history with people’s personal privacy. What’s more, it’s probably not going to be the last time we hear of legal cases with Facebook, Meta, and personal privacy, either.
