The attorney general in Texas is suing Google over claims the company has been illegally collecting people’s biometric data without user consent through various products, including Google Photos and Google Assistant.
AG Ken Paxton announced the lawsuit today, which accuses Google of violating a Texas biometric privacy law passed in 2009.
The law requires companies to receive consent before capturing biometric data from a user, including their fingerprint, voiceprint, or a record of their “face geometry.” Paxton’s lawsuit claims Google has been in violation of the law since 2015 starting with a Google Photos feature called “Face Grouping," which uses facial recognition to find images of people in a photo collection.
“Many Texans do not know or understand that Google powers Google Photos by recording and analyzing sensitive biometric information. But, even more striking is the fact that, through the Face Grouping process, Google captures and stores sensitive biometric data about Texan users and non-users alike—and Google stores that data for an unreasonable amount of time,” the lawsuit alleges.
The complaint adds: “Even more troubling, when the mother uploads video of the birthday party, Google runs facial recognition on every face detected in that video, including the faces of uninvolved bystanders in the park, restaurant, or schoolyard.”
The lawsuit goes on to claim Google is also capturing the biometric data without consent through the Nest Hub Max’s facial-recognition feature called Face Match and through Google Assistant, which can create a voice model to recognize the user.
“Google’s indiscriminate collection of the personal information of Texans, including very sensitive information like biometric identifiers, will not be tolerated,” Paxton said in the announcement. “I will continue to fight Big Tech to ensure the privacy and security of all Texans.”
But in an email, Google denied any wrongdoing. "AG Paxton is once again mischaracterizing our products in another breathless lawsuit. For example, Google Photos helps you organize pictures of people, by grouping similar faces, so you can easily find old photos. Of course, this is only visible to you and you can easily turn off this feature if you choose and we do not use photos or videos in Google Photos for advertising purposes," a company spokesperson said.
"The same is true for Voice Match and Face Match on Nest Hub Max, which are off-by-default features that give users the option to let Google Assistant recognize their voice or face to show their information. We will set the record straight in court," the Google spokesperson added.
If Paxton wins the court case, then the company faces the prospect of paying a sizable penalty. The lawsuit is demanding the tech giant pay $25,000 per violation while noting Google likely has millions of users in the state.
Google settled a similar dispute in Illinois. In 2016, several residents in the state brought a class-action lawsuit against the company, claiming Google violated Illinois' biometric privacy act by collecting and saving data about people's faces without proper notice and consent. Google decided to settle the case by paying $100 million to eligible residents in the state.
In February, Paxton also sued Facebook’s parent Meta for breaking Texas' biometric privacy law over claims the company has been repeatedly capturing biometric data from people’s photos and videos without user consent.