© Eric Gay/APTexas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during a hearing in Austin, Texas.
In the lawsuit announced Thursday, Paxton alleged that the Big Tech company had unlawfully captured and used the biometric data of Texans, including voice prints, facial geometry, and other elements that popular apps such as Google Photos or Google Assistant may collect.
Paxton said in a press statement:
"Google's indiscriminate collection of the personal information of Texans, including susceptible information like biometric identifiers, will not be tolerated. I will continue to fight Big Tech to ensure the privacy and security of all Texans."Paxton said that Google ran afoul of the state's Capture or Use of Biometric Identifiers Act. The act was passed in 2009 and requires businesses and tech companies to inform customers that they are collecting biometric data.
A Google spokesperson told the Washington Examiner:
"AG Paxton is once again mischaracterizing our products in another breathless lawsuit. For example, Google Photos helps you organize pictures of people, by grouping similar faces, so you can easily find old photos. Of course, this is only visible to you and you can easily turn off this feature if you choose and we do not use photos or videos in Google Photos for advertising purposes. The same is true for Voice Match and Face Match on Nest Hub Max, which are off-by-default features that give users the option to let Google Assistant recognize their voice or face to show their information. We will set the record straight in court."Paxton has at least three ongoing lawsuits against Google. He first filed a "multi-state lawsuit against Google for anti-competitive conduct, exclusionary practices, and deceptive misrepresentations" in 2020. He followed up with suits against Google in 2022, arguing that the search engine had dominant control of the ad market as well as deceptive tracking practices.
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