Google To Pay Texas $1.4 Billion Over Privacy Lawsuit

Google will pay $1.375 billion to the state of Texas (US) to settle two 2022 lawsuits alleging Google’s unlawful collection of users’ private data. The state accused Google of gathering information such as geolocation, incognito search activity, and biometric identifiers without user consent.

The lawsuits alleged that Google had violated Texas consumer protection laws by gathering data like facial geometry, and voiceprints without the user’s consent. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also argued that Google had tracked its users’ geolocation even when they had explicitly disabled the option and offered misleading information regarding its incognito mode.

Last year, Paxton issued a similar lawsuit against Meta over its facial recognition practices, securing a $1.4 billion settlement.

“In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law. 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,” said Paxton. “This $1.375 billion settlement is a major win for Texans’ privacy and tells companies that they will pay for abusing our trust.”

According to Paxton, this is the biggest settlement from Google ever attained by any US state. “Even a multistate coalition that included forty states secured just $391 million—almost a billion dollars less than Texas’s recovery,” reads the release.

The company stated that this settlement didn’t represent any admission of liability or wrongdoing, and that no product changes were necessary.

“This settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed,” said Google spokesperson José Castañeda in a statement. “We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services.”

The settlement comes as Google faces major antitrust rulings in the US, including a proposal by the Department of Justice to break up Google to restore competition on internet searches.