Google coughs up $1.4 billion to Texas over privacy lawsuit

Google will pay Texas $1.4 billion to settle a pair of lawsuits alleging that the company violated people’s privacy rights.

The lawsuit alleged that Google collected users’ biometrics without express consent and tracked their locations even if the feature was disable.

“In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law. For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement this week. “This $1.375 billion settlement is a major win for Texans’ privacy and tells companies that they will pay for abusing our trust. I will always protect Texans by stopping Big Tech’s attempts to make a profit by selling away our rights and freedoms.”

The suit involved allegations that Google misused location history in Maps and data in Photos. Texas alleged, for instance, that Google used features in Photos to scan faces. The company told Engadget that Photos scanned faces for organizing purposes only. Google denied wrongdoing as it agreed to the settlement.

“This settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed,” Google spokesman Jose Castaneda told CNBC. “We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services.”