will pay $1.4 billion to Texas to settle claims the company collected users' data without permission, the state鈥檚 attorney general announced Friday.
Attorney General Ken Paxton described the settlement as sending a message to tech companies that he will not allow them to make money off of 鈥渟elling away our rights and freedoms.鈥�
鈥淚n Texas, Big Tech is not above the law." Paxton said in a statement. 鈥淔or years, Google secretly tracked people鈥檚 movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won.鈥�
The agreement settles several claims Texas made against the search giant in 2022 related to geolocation, incognito searches and biometric data. The state argued Google was 鈥渦nlawfully tracking and collecting users鈥� private data.鈥�
Paxton claimed, for example, that Google collected millions of biometric identifiers, including voiceprints and records of face geometry, through such products and services as Google Photos and Google Assistant.
Google spokesperson Jos茅 Casta帽eda said the agreement settles an array of 鈥渙ld claims,鈥� some of which relate to product policies the company has already changed.
鈥淲e are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services,鈥� he said in a statement.
The company also clarified that the settlement does not require any new product changes.
Paxton said the $1.4 billion is the largest amount won by any state in a settlement with Google over this type of data-privacy violations.
Texas previously reached two other key settlements with Google within the last two years, including one in December 2023 in which the company agreed to pay and make several other concessions to settle allegations that it had been stifling competition against its Android app store.
Meta has also agreed to a $1.4 billion in a privacy lawsuit over allegations that the tech giant used users' biometric data without their permission.
Hallie Golden, The Associated Press
