According to Attorney General Ken Paxton, Google has reportedly collected data from “millions of Texans without properly obtaining their informed consent to do so.” Also, millions of biometric identifiers, including voiceprints and records of face geometry, are collected by Google through Photos, Google Assistant, and Nest Hub Max. “Google’s indiscriminate collection of the personal information of Texans, including very sensitive information like biometric identifiers, will not be tolerated,” Attorney General Paxton noted in Thursday’s statement. “I will continue to fight Big Tech to ensure the privacy and security of all Texans.”
Google faces lawsuit in Texas over collecting user’s sensitive data
This is not the first time the Texas Attorney General has sued Google over its data and business practices. Paxton previously sued Google for violating Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act and tracking users’ locations without their consent. The Texas AG has now asked the court to permanently prevent Google from “capturing, maintaining, or using in any way the biometric identifiers captured in Texas.” Google might also face a $25,000-per-infraction fine in Texas. Of course, Google has responded to the allegation. The company’s spokesperson said, “AG Paxton is once again mischaracterizing our products in another breathless lawsuit. For example, Google Photos helps you organize pictures of people, by grouping similar faces, so you can easily find old photos. Of course, this is only visible to you and you can easily turn off this feature if you choose and we do not use photos or videos in Google Photos for advertising purposes. The same is true for Voice Match and Face Match on Nest Hub Max, which are off-by-default features that give users the option to let Google Assistant recognize their voice or face to show their information. We will set the record straight in court.” This is the third data privacy lawsuit against Google in the last few months. Back in June, the search company agreed to pay $100 million to Illinois residents over a data privacy case related to the Photos app. In early October, Google also paid $85 million to settle a data privacy lawsuit in Arizona.
