AUSTIN: Google will pay$ 1. 4 billion to Texas to settle claims the organization collected people ‘ information without permission, the state’s attorney general announced Friday. Attorney General Ken Paxton described the lawsuit as sending a message to tech firms that he will not allow them to make cash off of” selling apart our rights and freedoms. “
” In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law. ” Paxton said in a speech. ” For decades, Google quietly tracked people’s actions, private requests, and yet their voiceprints and cosmetic mathematics through their products and services. I fought up and won. “
The deal settles some promises Texas made against the search gigantic in 2022 related to location, anonymous searches and biological data. The state argued Google was “unlawfully tracking and collecting users ‘ personal information. “
Paxton claimed, for instance, that Google collected thousands of genetic names, including voiceprints and information of face shape, through for products and services as Google Photos and Google Assistant.
Google director Jose Castaneda said the deal settles an array of “old statements,” some of which relate to item policies the organization has now changed.
” We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build strong privacy settings into our service,” he said in a speech.
The firm also clarified that the lawsuit does not need any new item changes.
Paxton said the$ 1. 4 billion is the largest number won by any state in a negotiation with Google over this type of data-privacy transgressions.
Texas previously reached two other key settlements with Google within the last two years, including one in December 2023 in which the company agreed to pay$ 700 million and make several other concessions to settle allegations that it had been stifling competition against its Android app store.
Meta has also agreed to a$ 1. 4 billion arrangement with Texas in a private petition over claims that the software giant used people ‘ biometric information without their consent. ( AP )
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