Google pays Texas $1.4 billion to settle information privateness violation lawsuits

Google has agreed to pay the state of Texas $1.375 billion to settle two lawsuits accusing the corporate of violating its residents’ information privateness rights. Texas Lawyer Normal Ken Paxton sued Google in 2022, alleging that it collected customers’ biometrics with out their specific consent and continued to trace their location even after they’ve disabled the characteristic. Within the Attorney General’s website, his workplace mentioned that it is the greatest quantity Google has agreed to pay to resolve comparable lawsuits for information privateness violations. “For years, Google secretly tracked individuals’s actions, personal searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry by their services and products. I fought again and received,” Paxton mentioned.

When the Lawyer Normal filed the lawsuit, Google instructed Engadget that Paxton mischaracterized its merchandise. One in every of Paxton’s complaints, as an illustration, was that Google used options in Images and Assistant to scan individuals’s faces. The corporate’s spokesperson instructed us that Images solely scanned faces in order that customers can group pictures of the identical particular person for group. Google consultant Jose Castaneda instructed CNBC that the corporate shouldn’t be admitting any wrongdoing or legal responsibility by agreeing to settle. He mentioned Google would not need to make any modifications to its merchandise as a part of the settlement. “This settles a raft of previous claims, lots of which have already been resolved elsewhere, regarding product insurance policies we’ve got lengthy since modified,” he mentioned.

In July 2024, Meta also agreed to pay Texas $1.4 billion to settle an identical lawsuit that accused the corporate of gathering its residents’ facial recognition information. Paxton mentioned Meta violated the state’s Seize or Use of Biometric Identifier Act “billions of occasions” by tagging images and movies with out customers’ consent.

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