Google has agreed to pay nearly $1.4 billion to the US in Texas to resolve two lawsuits that track users’ personal locations and accuse them of maintaining facial recognition data without consent.
The $1.375 billion payment will have fines paid by the tech giant to resolve similar lawsuits brought by other US people. In November 2022, it paid $391 million to groups in 40 states. In January 2023, they paid Indiana and Washington $29.5 million. That later in September, it kicked out another $93 million to settle in California.
Originally submitted in 2022, this case tracks the user’s location even when the location history setting is disabled, and tracks the user’s location even when biometric data is collected without informed consent, in connection with illegal tracking and user data collection on geolocation, secret search, and biometric data.
“For years, Google secretly tracked voice prints and facial geometry through people’s movements, private searches, and even products and services,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement.
“This $1.375 billion settlement is a huge victory for Texans’ privacy and tells businesses that we will pay to abuse our trust.”
Last year, Google announced plans to store map timeline data locally on users’ devices, rather than on Google accounts. The company has also deployed other privacy controls that allow users to automatically delete their location information when location history settings are enabled.
The payment also rivals the $1.4 billion fine that Meta paid to Texas to resolve a lawsuit that illegally collected biometric data for millions of users without permission.
The development comes as Google is under intense scrutiny of regulations on both sides of the Atlantic, facing calls to disband parts of its business to meet antitrust concerns.
