Mark Zuckerberg pledges Facebook users privacy upgrades after $550 million facial recognition settlement

NEW YORK/BANGALORE, INDIA – Facebook Inc. has reached a $550 million settlement of claims it collected and stored millions of users' biometric data without their consent, as Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg pledged better protections for users to address privacy concerns that have dogged the social media company. The proposed class-action settlement was disclosed by Facebook's chief financial officer on a Wednesday conference call to discuss fourth-quarter results, and by lawyers for Facebook users who called it the largest cash settlement of a privacy lawsuit. Facebook did not admit wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement, which requires court approval. The accord followed Facebook's $5 billion settlement last year with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which arose from the company's having allowed British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to harvest data for an estimated 87 million users. Zuckerberg said during the call that the FTC settlement committed Facebook to privacy controls that "set a new standard for our industry, going beyond anything that's required by law today."