A settlement of approximately $1.4 billion has been reached between Google and the U.S. state of Texas to resolve two cases alleging that the firm tracked users’ personal location and kept their face recognition data without their consent.
The amounts the tech giant has paid to resolve comparable cases from other U.S. states pale in comparison to the $1.375 billion payout. It gave $391 million to a consortium of 40 states in November 2022. It made $29.5 million payments to Washington and Indiana in January 2023. The settlement with California cost an additional $93 million later that September.
The complaint, which was first brought in 2022, concerned the illegal surveillance and acquisition of user data, including biometric information, geolocation, and incognito searches. It also involved the collection of biometric information without informed consent and the tracking of users’ whereabouts even when the Location History setting was turned off.
In a statement, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleged that Google had been surreptitiously monitoring people’s activities read more about Google Pays $1.375 Billion to Texas Over Unauthorized Tracking and Biometric Data Collection.
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