AUSTIN, Texas (NEWSnet/AP) — Meta has agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas in a privacy lawsuit over claims the company used biometric data of users, officials said Tuesday.

The lawsuit, filed in 2022, alleged Meta was in violation of a state law that prohibits capturing or selling a resident’s biometric information, such as their face or fingerprint, without consent.

“We are pleased to resolve this matter, and look forward to exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas, including potentially developing data centers,” Meta said.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the settlement is the largest secured by a single state.

In 2021, the company announced the shut-down of its face-recognition system and deleted prints of more than 1 billion people.

At the time, more than one-third of Facebook’s daily active users had opted in to have their faces recognized by the system.

In 2019, Facebook stopped recognition of people in photos and suggested people “tag” them, and instead of making that the default, asked users to choose if they want to use its facial-recognition feature.

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