Austin, Texas – Google has agreed to pay the state of Texas $1.375 billion to settle two privacy lawsuits, marking the largest single-state privacy settlement in the company’s history, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Friday.
The settlement resolves allegations that Google violated Texans’ privacy rights by unlawfully collecting and tracking personal data without consent. The lawsuits, filed in 2022, accused the tech giant of misusing geolocation data through services like Google Maps, tracking user activity during incognito browsing, and collecting biometric data, including facial recognition information, via Google Photos.
“For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry,” Paxton said in a statement. “This $1.375 billion settlement is a major win for Texans’ privacy and sends a clear message to Big Tech: you will pay for abusing our trust.”
The settlement significantly exceeds prior state-level agreements with Google over similar privacy violations. No other state has secured more than $93 million, and a 2022 multistate coalition of 40 states obtained $391 million—nearly $1 billion less than Texas’ recovery. This follows Texas’ $1.4 billion settlement with Meta in July 2024 over unauthorized use of facial recognition data, underscoring the state’s aggressive stance on data privacy enforcement.
Google denied any wrongdoing, emphasizing that the settlement addresses “a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere.” José Castañeda, a Google spokesperson, told The Verge, “We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services.” The company clarified that no new product changes are required as part of the agreement.
The lawsuits centered on several contentious practices. Texas alleged that Google’s Location History feature in Maps collected data even when users opted out, and that incognito mode in Chrome did not prevent tracking as users might expect. Additionally, the state claimed Google Photos scanned faces to organize images, a practice Google said was solely for organizational purposes.
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Paxton’s office has not disclosed how the settlement funds will be used, and detailed terms of the agreement remain undisclosed. The settlement is part of Texas’ broader initiative to regulate technology companies, with Paxton touting the state’s data privacy and security program as the largest in the nation.
This landmark agreement comes amid growing scrutiny of Big Tech’s data practices. In recent years, Google has faced other privacy-related settlements, including a $5 billion valuation for destroying data records tied to incognito browsing claims in 2024. Meanwhile, Texas continues to lead the charge, having secured $700 million and $8 million from Google in prior cases involving anticompetitive and deceptive trade practices.
As consumers become increasingly aware of their digital privacy, this settlement reinforces the potential consequences for companies that fail to prioritize user consent. For Texans, it represents a significant step toward holding tech giants accountable.