Attorney General Ken Paxton has reached a $1.375 billion settlement with Google over alleged violations of Texas’ data privacy laws.
According to Paxton’s office, the billion-dollar payout is the largest of its kind ever secured by a single state against the tech giant.
The settlement, announced in a press release, comes in response to a 2022 lawsuit Paxton filed accusing Google of unlawfully collecting and storing sensitive user data. The legal accusations include recording Texans’ real-time location, storing private search history – even while using their infamous “Incognito Mode,” and other “biometric” information violations such as storing face scans and voiceprints.
“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,” Paxton said in the release.
No other state has reached a privacy-related settlement with Google that is even close to the recent billion-dollar settlement with Texas.
While a coalition of 40 states previously secured a $391 million deal with the company, Texas independently negotiated a recovery more than three times larger than those 40 combined. The next highest known state settlement for similar privacy violations was $93 million.
Paxton’s office says the settlement will fund data privacy enforcement efforts and support consumer education across the Lone Star State. However, as of the time of publication, the specific plans for distributing the funds have not yet been released.
Paxton, who has essentially built a political brand for legal fights against contentious tech companies, referred to the recent Google settlement as part of a broader privacy campaign for Texans.
In 2023, he led a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta (formerly Facebook) over unlawful facial recognition practices, which was then the largest single-state privacy settlement in U.S. history.
His office also previously secured two other settlements from Google totaling $708 million for “anticompetitive conduct” and deceptive trade practices.