Penalty Amount
$1,400,000,000
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta over the company’s decade-long unauthorized capture of Texans’ facial geometry via its Tag Suggestions feature, which used facial recognition software without providing notice or obtaining informed consent. The practices violated Texas’s Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act (CUBI) and Deceptive Trade Practices Act, as Meta automatically enabled the feature for all Texans without explaining its functionality or seeking permission. This is the largest privacy settlement ever obtained by a single state attorney general, with Meta required to pay the penalty over five years and cease the unlawful biometric data practices.
Meta must pay $1.4 billion to the State of Texas over a five-year period and permanently stop capturing or using Texans’ biometric identifiers, including facial geometry, without first providing clear notice and obtaining explicit informed consent as required by Texas law. The settlement is formalized via a final court-ordered consent decree that enjoins all unlawful biometric data collection practices.
In-house legal teams should immediately review all vendor agreements involving biometric data collection, facial recognition tools, or automated user data capture to ensure compliance with state biometric privacy laws like Texas CUBI. Contracts must include explicit requirements for vendors to provide clear, upfront notice to users about biometric data collection practices and obtain opt-in informed consent before capturing any biometric identifiers (including facial geometry). Clauses related to automatic feature enablement (e.g., photo tagging) should be updated to prohibit activation without user consent, and audit rights should be added to verify vendor compliance. Teams should also ensure vendors are liable for violations of state deceptive trade practices acts related to undisclosed data collection, as penalties for noncompliance can reach billions of dollars.
Entity
Meta (formerly known as Facebook)
Industry
TechnologyOfficial Press Release
https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-secures-14-billion-settlement-meta-over-its-unauthorized-capture
Final State of Texas v Meta Order 2024
https://texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/images/press/Final%20State%20of%20Texas%20v%20Meta%20Order%202024.pdf
Texas Attorney General Enforcement Page
https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/consumer-protection/privacy
"Attorney General Ken Paxton Secures $1.4 Billion Settlement with Meta Over Its Unauthorized Capture of Personal Biometric Data"
"Meta (formerly known as Facebook)"
"$1.4 billion"
"Texas's 'Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier' Act (“CUBI”)"
"the Deceptive Trade Practices Act"
"unlawfully capturing the biometric data of millions of Texans without obtaining their informed consent"
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the U.S. Department of Justice secured a settlement with agricultural data broker Agri Stats, Inc. for facilitating the sharing of competitively sensitive information among meat processors, reducing competition and raising prices for chicken, pork, and turkey. Under the settlement, Agri Stats will implement industry-wide changes to its information distribution practices and make monetary payments to participating states. The settlement aims to restore competition in the agriculture industry and lower grocery prices for consumers.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton initiated an investigation into Drone Nerds, LLC over its partnership with CCP-affiliated Anzu Robotics, which markets drones with concealed surveillance capabilities and unauthorized data collection risks. Drone Nerds is accused of deceiving Texas consumers by misrepresenting Anzu’s ties to China and falsely claiming the drones are U.S.-based with secure privacy practices. The investigation is being conducted under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, with a Civil Investigative Demand issued to gather evidence of consumer deception and privacy violations.
$7.4B
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the effective date of a $7.4 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma, Inc. and the Sackler family over their role in fueling the opioid crisis. Texas will receive $286.5 million from the settlement, bringing the state’s total opioid recovery funds to over $3 billion. The settlement includes permanent bans on Sackler opioid sales in the U.S., public release of 30 million company documents, and distribution of funds for addiction treatment and prevention over 15 years.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton reached an agreement with Samsung Electronics America, Inc. to stop collecting Automated Content Recognition (ACR) data from smart TVs without consumers' express consent. Samsung must update its smart TVs to provide clear and conspicuous disclosures and obtain consent before any data collection, ensuring Texans are informed and in control of their viewing data.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Shein US Services LLC for selling toxic products and exposing consumers' personal data to the Chinese Communist Party. The lawsuit seeks monetary penalties under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. This action is part of a broader effort to protect Texans from health risks and CCP influence.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against PDD Holdings, Inc. and WhaleCo Inc., doing business as Temu, for deceptive marketing and unlawful covert harvesting of Texans’ personal data that was exposed to the Chinese Communist Party. The suit alleges Temu functions as a 'trojan horse' e-commerce app that bypasses security protocols to create a backdoor into users’ private data, which is stored on servers in China. The lawsuit seeks monetary relief under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, including up to $10,000 per violation and up to $250,000 per violation targeting consumers aged 65 or older.