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Texas AG wins $1.4B settlement from Facebook-parent Meta over facial-capture charges
NBC News ^ | 07/30/2024 | Rob Wile

Posted on 07/30/2024 12:53:58 PM PDT by DFG

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has won a $1.4 billion settlement from Facebook-parent Meta over charges that it captured users' facial and biometric data without properly informing them it was doing so.

Paxton said that starting in 2011, Meta, then known as Facebook, rolled out a “tag” feature that involved software that learned how to recognize and sort faces in photos.

In doing so, it automatically turned on the feature without explaining how it worked, Paxton said — something that violated a 2009 state statute governing the use of biometric data, as well as running afoul of the state's deceptive trade practices act.

"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," he said in a statement.

As part of the settlement, Meta did not admit to wrongdoing. Facebook discontinued how it had previously used face-recognition technology in 2021, in the process deleting the face-scan data of more than one billion users.

The settlement amount, which Paxton said is the largest ever obtained by a single state against a business, will be paid out over five years.

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...


TOPICS: US: Texas
KEYWORDS: facebook; paxton; texas; zuckerberg
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1 posted on 07/30/2024 12:53:58 PM PDT by DFG
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To: DFG

All the red states should sue Suckerburg and collect


2 posted on 07/30/2024 12:55:40 PM PDT by NWFree (Somebody has to say it 🤪)
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To: DFG

“ Facebook discontinued how it had previously used face-recognition technology in 2021, in the process deleting the face-scan data of more than one billion users.”

Because they promise they did


3 posted on 07/30/2024 12:56:57 PM PDT by NWFree (Somebody has to say it 🤪)
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To: DFG

Paxton barely but successfully survived several attempts to not only remove him as Texas Attorney General, but to even put him in jail as a felon.


4 posted on 07/30/2024 12:59:23 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (2 coups in less than 4 years. America is truly a first world Banana Republic.)
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To: DFG

Yeah sure they deleted it after they had sold or given it to other entities. You can bet that the data is still out there.


5 posted on 07/30/2024 1:07:55 PM PDT by Revel
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To: Responsibility2nd

The Speaker of the Texas House is a major liberal Republican, I understand.


6 posted on 07/30/2024 1:10:48 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: NWFree

Come on now - they wiped it with a cloth!


7 posted on 07/30/2024 1:12:57 PM PDT by fr_freak (So foul a sky clears not without a storm.)
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To: ConservativeMind

Yes indeed. All the Get Paxton efforts were led by RINO’s.


8 posted on 07/30/2024 1:15:29 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (2 coups in less than 4 years. America is truly a first world Banana Republic.)
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To: DFG

“in the process deleting the face-scan data of more than one billion users. “ Sure they are.

And this is why Ken Paxton is a target.


9 posted on 07/30/2024 1:40:03 PM PDT by BigFreakinToad (Remember the Biden Kitchen Fire of 2004)
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To: DFG

Bravo!!!


10 posted on 07/30/2024 1:51:17 PM PDT by FES0844
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To: NWFree

“ All the red states should sue Suckerburg and collect”

Now that we have the precedent.


11 posted on 07/30/2024 2:05:33 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Paging Dr. Bandy Lee. Dr. Lee please pick up the white courtesy phone.)
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To: DFG

LOVE IT !!!


12 posted on 07/30/2024 2:09:31 PM PDT by Pearfect (Ou can't beat the competition lock them )
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To: NWFree

What about that place in Utah that stores every single computer transaction?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Data_Center

The National Security Agency (NSA) leads operations at the facility as the executive agent for the Director of National Intelligence. It is located at Camp Williams near Bluffdale, Utah, between Utah Lake and Great Salt Lake and was completed in May 2014 at a cost of $1.5 billion.

[Notice who was president]


data center has the capability to process “all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Internet searches, as well as all types of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital ‘pocket litter’.” In response to claims that the data center would be used to illegally monitor email of U.S. citizens, in April 2013 an NSA spokesperson said, “Many unfounded allegations have been made about the planned activities of the Utah Data Center, ... one of the biggest misconceptions about NSA is that we are unlawfully listening in on, or reading emails of, U.S. citizens. This is simply not the case.”


13 posted on 07/30/2024 2:16:33 PM PDT by Indy Pendance (Jesus can't get here soon enough!)
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To: Indy Pendance

No, of course not

We can trust all branches and agencies of government, including the Secret Service and FBI and NSA


14 posted on 07/30/2024 2:26:47 PM PDT by A_Former_Democrat (What does the Deep State have on Dims and RINOs? Demand release of all tax returns)
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To: Responsibility2nd

I voted for him. Happy to hear good news.

Go Paxton!


15 posted on 07/30/2024 2:31:07 PM PDT by TribalPrincess2U (Bye done!)
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To: NWFree

But only after selling the data to the NSA.


16 posted on 07/30/2024 2:40:02 PM PDT by MeanWestTexan (Sometimes There Is No Lesser Of Two Evils)
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To: DFG

FABULOUS!!! THANK GOD!!


17 posted on 07/30/2024 5:18:30 PM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: NWFree

Who believes they deleted everything. Anyone? Anyone?

Nope, didn’t think so.


18 posted on 07/30/2024 5:48:06 PM PDT by bgill
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To: DFG

I saw a story several years ago on a tv news segment about a woman whose photo was taken off a convenience store security camera and ended up on x-rated websites. I do not know how that turned out for the woman.

Twitter used to sell photos to x-rated sites too of any photo you or another person uploaded. A Sports Illustrated model Genevieve Morton filed a lawsuit over her image being sold by Twitter. She lost because she did not own the copyright of the photo but did own the calendar being sold that the photo was a part of. The case took 2 years to go thru the court system.

“Simply because Morton I and II did not involve the Subject Photograph does not change the situation that the same underlying issue – Plaintiff’s copyright ownership over the collection of works – is again being relitigated.”

The court ruled against her again as she did not own the copyright of the collection of photos.

She had filed a second lawsuit at the same time with the website that had also posted photos of her, they had to remove the photos from their website. No money was awarded. The internet has since spread the photos everywhere.
I had to do a extensive search to verify.....

Even if you have the means to go to court you can lose and the photos become widespread even if you win.


19 posted on 07/31/2024 12:40:32 AM PDT by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
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To: DFG

Meta/Facebook needs sued by all States and people and anyone else that can take their money away.


20 posted on 07/31/2024 8:03:57 AM PDT by CodeToad (Rule #1: The elites want you dead.)
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