Google will pay Texas $1.4 billion to settle data privacy violation lawsuits

Google has agreed to pay the state of Texas $1.375 billion to settle two lawsuits accusing the company of violating its residents' data privacy rights. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Google in 2022, alleging that it collected users' biometrics without their express consent and continued to track their location even after they've disabled the feature. In the Attorney General's website, his office said that it's the biggest amount Google has agreed to pay to resolve similar lawsuits for data privacy violations. "For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won," Paxton said. 

When the Attorney General filed the lawsuit, Google told Engadget that Paxton mischaracterized its products. One of Paxton's complaints, for instance, was that Google used features in Photos and Assistant to scan people's faces. The company's spokesperson told us that Photos only scanned faces so that users can group images of the same person for organization. Google representative Jose Castaneda told CNBC that the company is not admitting any wrongdoing or liability by agreeing to settle. He said Google doesn't have to make any changes to its products as part of the agreement. "This settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed," he said.

In July 2024, Meta also agreed to pay Texas $1.4 billion to settle a similar lawsuit that accused the company of collecting its residents' facial recognition data. Paxton said Meta violated the state's Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act "billions of times" by tagging photos and videos without users' consent.