Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a landmark $1.375 billion settlement in principle with Google, marking the largest state-level recovery against the tech giant for violations of data privacy laws.
This historic agreement, announced late Friday, is the culmination of years of litigation. In 2022, Paxton’s office sued Google, alleging that the company unlawfully tracked and collected Texans’ private data.
The lawsuit accused Google of:
- Tracking users’ geolocation even when location features were disabled
- Monitoring private browsing activities in Chrome’s incognito mode
- Collecting biometric data, such as voiceprints and facial geometry, without proper consent
Texas’ suit argued that Google’s actions violated the state’s biometric privacy laws, which require companies to obtain clear, informed consent before collecting sensitive biometric identifiers like fingerprints, voice, or facial scans.
The $1.375 billion settlement far exceeds any previous state-level recovery for similar data privacy violations. For comparison:
- The largest prior state settlement with Google for similar issues was $93 million.
- A coalition of forty states previously secured a combined $391 million, almost a billion dollars less than Texas’ recovery.
This agreement also surpasses Texas’ own $700 million and $8 million settlements with Google for anticompetitive and deceptive trade practices in earlier years.
Attorney General Paxton described the settlement as a “major win for Texans’ privacy” and emphasized that “Big Tech is not above the law.”
He stated, “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. This $1.375 billion settlement is a major win for Texans’ privacy and tells companies that they will pay for abusing our trust. I will always protect Texans by stopping Big Tech’s attempts to make a profit by selling away our rights and freedoms.”
Google has not admitted any wrongdoing or liability as part of the settlement. Company spokesperson José Castañeda told Texas Scorecard that the agreement resolves “a raft of old claims” related to product policies that have already been revised. “We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services.”
Castañeda explained the settlement does not require changes to Google’s current products or additional disclosures to consumers.
This settlement follows a series of high-profile actions by Paxton’s office against major technology companies. In July 2024, Texas secured a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta (formerly Facebook) over unauthorized collection and use of facial recognition data, the largest such settlement ever obtained by a single state.
The agreement between Google and Texas still needs to be finalized.
