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.