Google to pay Texas $1.4 billion to settle privacy lawsuits

In a landmark settlement, Google will pay $1.4 billion to Texas to resolve two lawsuits accusing the company of tracking users’ personal location data, incognito searches, and voice and facial information without their consent.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the settlement will help stop tech companies from profiting off the sale of citizens' rights and freedoms. He also called it “a big win for Texans’ privacy” in a public statement.

Other million-dollar lawsuits against the tech company

The lawsuits were filed by the state attorney general in 2022. Last year, Facebook’s parent company, Meta, agreed to pay a similar amount to settle another lawsuit related to facial recognition.

"In Texas, big tech is not above the law," Paxton declared. "For years, Google secretly tracked people's movements, private searches and even voiceprints and facial geometry through its products and services. I fought back and won."

The settlement resolves complaints over geolocation, incognito searches, and biometric data. The state argued that Google illegally tracked and collected users' private information.

Paxton claimed the tech giant collected millions of biometric identifiers, including voiceprints and facial geometry data, through apps such as Google Photos and Google Assistant.

Google stated that the settlement resolves several long-standing claims, including those related to product policies the company had already updated. The company added that no additional product changes are required, as confirmed by Google spokesman Jose Castaneda in an interview with The Texas Tribune.

Google and lawsuits from California

Texas had also reached two other settlements with Google in the past two years, including one in December 2023, when the tech giant agreed to pay $700 million and make several concessions to resolve allegations that it had been stifling competition against its Android app store.

To date, no state has reached a settlement with the prominent company for similar data privacy violations exceeding \$93 million. Even a multi-state coalition involving forty states secured only \$391 million—nearly \$1 billion less than the amount Texas obtained.