Texas sues Google for allegedly collecting biometric data without consent

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The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, filed a privacy lawsuit again google on Thursday. The suit claims the company is collecting Texans’ facial and voice recognition information without consent. 

Ken Paxton claims a state consumer protection law was violated as it requires companies to inform citizens and request consent before capturing biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, voiceprints, or a “record of hand or face geometry”. Violating the law can result in up to a $25,000 fine per violation. Google has millions of users in Texas who could have been affected. 

In a statement, Paxton stated, “I will continue to fight Big Tech to ensure privacy and security of all Texans. 

In a statement, a Google spokesman, José Castañeda, claimed Paxton is “once again mischaracterizing our products in another breathless lawsuit.” 

Google Photos app, Google’s Nest camera, and Google Assistant are all under fire by Paxton as he claims the products violate the rights of users and nonusers by scanning voices and faces without consent. 

The complaint states, “Google has now spent years unlawfully capturing the faces and voices of both nonconsenting users and nonusers throughout Texas — including our children and grandparents, who simply have no idea that their biometric information is being mined for profit by a global corporation.”

The Texas biometric privacy law was introduced in 2009 with Texas having to sue companies on consumers’ behalf. Washington and Illinois passed similar laws around this time, though Illinois’s version of the law permits individuals to directly sue companies.