While the dispute may have arisen regarding a feature from more than a decade ago, tech giant Meta has finally come to a payment settlement with the state of Texas regarding its Facebook tag suggestions for pictures.
The company confirmed how it would be settling the lawsuit launched in 2022 that had to do with using facial recognition through the app. Texas stated how the feature called Tag Suggestions on images published to the app went against the state’s CUBI Act as well as the Deceptive Trade Practices law.
For this reason, Meta is all set to pay a whopping $1.4B over five years to bring the chapter to a close. This was confirmed by the Texas AG Ken Paxton today.
Certainly, it’s one of the biggest settlements related to actions brought about by a certain state as per Paxton. Furthermore, it’s also the first legal case and settlement rolled out under the CUBI which also serves as an alert to other firms that violate the Texas citizens’ privacy rights.
Any abuse of the sensitive data from Texans would be met through full investigation and force of the state law, the AG confirmed in the latest press release concerning the matter.
The problem has to do with the app making suggestions for who should be tagged in these images. This all stems from the decision that Facebook made in 2011 when it launched the latest feature dubbed Tag Suggestions. It felt this would better user experiences by ensuring it’s simpler to tag pictures with names of certain individuals in a picture as per the press release.
This was two years after we saw the state pass the CUBI Act that prevents firms from capturing biometric information such as face geometry without getting consent from them beforehand.
The app went about turning this feature for tag suggestions on without permission and that meant it was clicking and using their personal biometrics that belonged to millions of citizens without any form of authorization.
At the start, this legal case sought $25K in civil penalties for violating the law and then an additional $10K per violation of the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Law. such penalties would have hit the hundreds of billions mark as confirmed through a report by the WSJ in 2022.
Right now, the firm didn’t admit that it was doing anything wrong in this settlement.
We did see in the year 2017 how the app went about turning this feature on/off through control tag suggestions. It was replaced with some more comprehensive settings for facial recognition, two years later. After that, the app just stopped with the automated option for face tagging images in 2021.
The spokesperson for Meta released a statement on this front, adding how they are glad that a resolution on this matter has finally been made. Moreover, he added that the company hopes to explore better opportunities in the future to better its business projects in the state of Texas like more data centers that would benefit all.
Image: DIW-Aigen
Read next: Q2 Earnings: Pinterest Revenue Matches Forecasts, MAUs Hit 522M, Shares Plunge 15%
The company confirmed how it would be settling the lawsuit launched in 2022 that had to do with using facial recognition through the app. Texas stated how the feature called Tag Suggestions on images published to the app went against the state’s CUBI Act as well as the Deceptive Trade Practices law.
For this reason, Meta is all set to pay a whopping $1.4B over five years to bring the chapter to a close. This was confirmed by the Texas AG Ken Paxton today.
Certainly, it’s one of the biggest settlements related to actions brought about by a certain state as per Paxton. Furthermore, it’s also the first legal case and settlement rolled out under the CUBI which also serves as an alert to other firms that violate the Texas citizens’ privacy rights.
Any abuse of the sensitive data from Texans would be met through full investigation and force of the state law, the AG confirmed in the latest press release concerning the matter.
The problem has to do with the app making suggestions for who should be tagged in these images. This all stems from the decision that Facebook made in 2011 when it launched the latest feature dubbed Tag Suggestions. It felt this would better user experiences by ensuring it’s simpler to tag pictures with names of certain individuals in a picture as per the press release.
This was two years after we saw the state pass the CUBI Act that prevents firms from capturing biometric information such as face geometry without getting consent from them beforehand.
The app went about turning this feature for tag suggestions on without permission and that meant it was clicking and using their personal biometrics that belonged to millions of citizens without any form of authorization.
At the start, this legal case sought $25K in civil penalties for violating the law and then an additional $10K per violation of the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Law. such penalties would have hit the hundreds of billions mark as confirmed through a report by the WSJ in 2022.
Right now, the firm didn’t admit that it was doing anything wrong in this settlement.
We did see in the year 2017 how the app went about turning this feature on/off through control tag suggestions. It was replaced with some more comprehensive settings for facial recognition, two years later. After that, the app just stopped with the automated option for face tagging images in 2021.
The spokesperson for Meta released a statement on this front, adding how they are glad that a resolution on this matter has finally been made. Moreover, he added that the company hopes to explore better opportunities in the future to better its business projects in the state of Texas like more data centers that would benefit all.
Read next: Q2 Earnings: Pinterest Revenue Matches Forecasts, MAUs Hit 522M, Shares Plunge 15%
