Google will pay Texas US$1.4B to settle claims the company collected users’ data without permission

A sign is displayed on a Google building at their campus in Mountain View, Calif., on Sept. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Google will pay $1.4 billion to Texas to settle claims the company collected users’ data without permission, the state’s attorney general announced Friday.

In 2022, Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Google, saying the search giant collected millions of biometric identifiers, including voiceprints and records of face geometry, through its products and services like Google Photos, Google Assistant and Nest Hub Max.

“In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law.” Paxton said in a statement Friday. “For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won.”

Google did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The attorney general’s office described the settlement as the largest amount won by any state in a settlement with Google over this type of data-privacy violations.

The news comes a little less than a year after Meta agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas in a privacy lawsuit over allegations that the tech giant used biometric data of users without their permission.