(Credit: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Google has agreed to pay $1.375 billion to settle two lawsuits accusing the company of collecting Texans’ biometric data without consent.
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton says the deal is the "highest recovery nationwide against Google for any attorney general’s enforcement of state privacy laws." Previously, the biggest payout was in 2022, when a coalition of 40 states secured $391 million from Google on similar grounds.
The Texas lawsuits also date back to 2022. According to one of them, Google violated a Texas biometric privacy law passed in 2009 when it unlawfully collected users’ biometrics without consent. The lawsuit targeted Google Photos for recording, analyzing, and storing sensitive biometric information and also called out its face grouping process.
“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 claimed. It also called out data collection for the Face Match and Voice Match features on the Nest Hub Max smart display.
Google agreed to settle the claims after years of “aggressive litigation,” Paxton says.
“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,” he adds. “This $1.375 billion settlement is a major win for Texans’ privacy and tells companies that they will pay for abusing our trust."
In a statement, Google tells Reuters the deal "settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed."
Paxton's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how the money will be spent. In 2022, when Pennsylvania got $20 million as part of that multi-state deal, a spokesperson said the funds would be added to the state treasury.
Last year, Texas negotiated a $1.4 billion deal with Meta for unlawful use of facial recognition.