AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a $1.375 billion settlement in principle with Google, delivering a historic win for Texans’ data privacy and security rights and marking the highest recovery nationwide against Google for any attorney general’s enforcement of state privacy laws.
In 2022, Attorney General Paxton sued Google for unlawfully tracking and collecting users’ private data regarding geolocation, incognito searches, and biometric data. After years of aggressive litigation, Attorney General Paxton agreed to settle Texas’s data-privacy claims against Google for an amount that far surpasses any other state’s claims for similar violations. To date, no state has attained a settlement against Google for similar data-privacy violations greater than $93 million. Even a multistate coalition that included forty states secured just $391 million—almost a billion dollars less than Texas’s recovery.
“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,” said Attorney General Paxton. “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.”
Attorney General Paxton has led the nation in ensuring Big Tech companies do not violate the law or illegally use Texans’ personal data, founding the largest data privacy and security initiative of any state. In July, Attorney General Paxton secured a $1.4 billion settlement for the State of Texas with Meta (formerly Facebook) for unlawfully collecting and using facial recognition data—the largest settlement ever obtained from an action brought by a single State. Previously, Attorney General Paxton reached $700 million and $8 million settlements with Google for anticompetitive and deceptive trade practices. Attorney General Paxton thanks Norton Rose Fulbright, which served as outside counsel to the Office of Attorney General.
