Meta has agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas in a privacy lawsuit over claims that the tech giant used biometric data of users without their permission, officials said Tuesday.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the settlement is the largest secured by a single state. In 2021, a judge approved a $650 million settlement with the company, formerly known as Facebook, over similar claims of users in Illinois.

B次元官网网址淭his historic settlement demonstrates our commitment to standing up to the worldB次元官网网址檚 biggest technology companies and holding them accountable for breaking the law and violating TexansB次元官网网址� privacy rights,B次元官网网址� Paxton, a Republican, said in a statement.

Meta said in a statement: B次元官网网址淲e 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.B次元官网网址�

Filed in 2022, the Texas lawsuit alleged that Meta was in violation of a state law that prohibits capturing or selling a residentB次元官网网址檚 biometric information, such as their face or fingerprint, without their consent.

The company announced in 2021 that it was shutting down its face-recognition system and delete the faceprints of more than 1 billion people amid growing concerns about the technology and its misuse by governments, police and others.

At the time, more than a third of FacebookB次元官网网址檚 daily active users had opted in to have their faces recognized by the social networkB次元官网网址檚 system. Facebook introduced facial recognition more than a decade earlier but gradually made it easier to opt out of the feature as it faced scrutiny from courts and regulators.

Facebook in 2019 stopped automatically recognizing people in photos and suggesting people B次元官网网址渢agB次元官网网址� them, and instead of making that the default, asked users to choose if they wanted to use its facial recognition feature.

The $1.4 billion is unlikely to make a dent in MetaB次元官网网址檚 business. The Menlo Park, California-based tech made a profit of $12.37 billion in the first three months of this year, Its revenue was $36.46 billion, an increase of 27% from a year earlier. Meta is scheduled to report its second-quarter earnings results on Wednesday.

MetaB次元官网网址檚 stock slipped $4.06 to $461.65 Tuesday, a decline of less than 1%.

Nadia Lathan, The Associated Press