State Attorney General Ken Paxton said Google will pay $1.4 billion to Texas to resolve a lawsuit claiming the company has collected data from users without permission.

Paxton said the settlement was given to tech companies and he would not allow them to make a profit "sell our rights and freedoms." He also said the agreement “is a significant victory for Texans’ privacy and told the company that they will pay for abuse of our trust.”

"In Texas, large-scale technology is not higher than the law," Paxton said in a statement. "For years, Google has secretly tracked people's movements, private searches, and even their voice printing and facial geometry through its products and services. I fought back and won."

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Paxton said it is the biggest amount any state that has settled a personal relationship with Google similar data has won in a Google solution.

The agreement resolves several Texas claims against Google in a 2022 lawsuit on geolocation, stealth search and biometric data. The state believes that Google is illegally tracking and collecting users' private data.

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Paxton claims the tech giant has collected millions of biometric identifiers, including voice printing and facial geometric records, through applications such as Google Photos and Google Assistant.

Google said the agreement resolves various "old claims", including some related to the company's already changed product policies. The company said the settlement does not require any other product changes.

"We are pleased to put them behind us and we will continue to build strong privacy controls for our services," Google spokesman José Castañeda said in a statement to the Texas Tribune.

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Texas has previously reached two other settlements with Google over the past two years, including in December 2023, when the company agreed to pay $700 million and make some other concessions to address competition that it has been snuffing its Android App Store.

Last year, Meta agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas, claiming that the company used facial recognition software without the user's consent. The suit specifically cites the “tag advice” feature because Facebook will upload photos on the website through its facial recognition software and recommends people tag in the photos.

Original article source: Google pays $1.4B to Texas to resolve unauthorized tracking claims, collecting private data