Google to pay Texas more than $1 billion in data privacy settlement

(KRON) — Google will pay the state of Texas $1.375 billion as part of a data privacy settlement, Texas Attor­ney Gen­er­al Ken Pax­ton announced Friday.

Paxton sued Google in 2022 after the company allegedly broke the law by tracking and collecting private data related to users’ locations, incognito searches and biometric data. Pax­ton called the settlement “a historic win for Texans’ data privacy and security rights.”

“After years of aggressive litigation, Attorney General Paxton agreed to settle Texas’ data-privacy claims against Google for an amount that far surpasses any other state’s claims for similar violations,” a statement issued by Paxton’s office reads. “To date, no state has attained a settlement against Google for similar data-privacy violations greater than $93 million. Even a multistate coalition that included forty states secured just $391 million — almost a billion dollars less than Texas’s recovery.”

Paxton said that the lawsuit sends a message to tech companies that they will pay for abusing  the public’s trust.

“For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services,” Paxton said in a statement. “I fought back and won.”

In July, Paxton negotiated a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta for the company’s alleged collection and use of facial-recognition data. Paxton also took part in a $700 million, multistate settlement regarding allegations that Google was illegally stifling the competition in its Android app store.