Google has committed to a substantial $1.375 billion payment to Texas, bringing an end to two significant lawsuits that centered on allegations of improper data handling, including the tracking of Texans’ personal location, unauthorized maintenance of their facial recognition data, and deceptive practices concerning search history in its Chrome browser’s incognito mode.
This landmark agreement, confirmed on Friday is a major step in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s ongoing campaign against Big Tech’s data practices and stands as one of the most considerable privacy-related financial resolutions Google has made with a single state.
The settlement underscores the increasing financial and legal pressures on technology firms regarding data privacy, potentially heralding stricter adherence to user consent and transparency across the industry, while allowing Google to move past these contentious legal battles despite some recent, more favorable court developments in the underlying cases. The Texas AG’s office has framed this as a significant win, achieved amidst a political backdrop that includes Paxton’s own ambitions for higher office.
Google Ignored Data Collection Choice of Users
The core of the lawsuits involved claims that Google persisted in collecting location data even after users had disabled such settings and that it compiled biometric information via services like Google Photos and Nest devices without obtaining explicit user permission. Texas also contended that Google failed to adequately anonymize search queries conducted in the browser’s incognito mode.
The financial sum of this settlement is particularly striking; it is comparable to the $1.4 billion Meta agreed to pay Texas in a distinct facial recognition lawsuit and substantially surpasses the $391.5 million Google settled for with a coalition of 40 states in 2022 over its location tracking methods. Legal analysts suggest that while Google does not admit wrongdoing, this large payment acts as a notable deterrent and could influence how tech companies nationwide manage data consent and transparency.
In an official announcement, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton celebrated the outcome, stating, “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. 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.”
His office described it as the “highest recovery nationwide against Google for any attorney general’s enforcement of state privacy laws.” Conversely, Google, while not conceding fault, expressed a desire to resolve these matters. Company spokesman José Castañeda remarked, ““This settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed. We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services.”
As a component of the deal, Google is also obliged to revise the language within its privacy disclosures, a measure the company indicates it has either already completed or has announced intentions to implement.
Navigating The Legal And Financial Landscape
The legal confrontation was a resource-intensive endeavor, with Texas engaging external law firms under lucrative contingency fee arrangements. Norton Rose Fulbright, the firm representing Texas in the Google litigation, stands to potentially collect up to 18% of the net recovery from the facial recognition aspect of the case and up to 27% from the location data component, based on contracts with the state. This financial dimension highlights the significant stakes in such legal actions against major technology corporations.
To illustrate, in the earlier Meta case, the law firms Keller Postman and McKool Smith collectively billed Texas $136 million for their legal services, according to Bloomberg Law. The settlement funds are largely expected to go to Texas’s general fund a portion might be directed towards future consumer protection and data privacy education initiatives.
Interestingly, the announcement of this settlement on Friday came after Google had achieved some victories in the lower courts concerning these two cases.
In January, a Texas Court of Appeals had determined that the California-headquartered tech company did not have sufficient connections to be sued in Texas regarding the location and search history allegations. Days later, another appellate court granted Google the right to depose the state concerning the claims it had raised in both lawsuits.
The State of Texas had appealed these rulings to the state’s supreme court, which had paused further proceedings just last week, signaling an impending resolution. Google had argued in court filings where the company contended the claims lacked merit and that users had consented to its data practices via its terms of service.
Broader Context Of Data Scrutiny
This $1.375 billion payment does not conclude all of Google’s legal entanglements in Texas. The state continues to spearhead a federal lawsuit, alleging that Google maintains an illegal monopoly over the online display advertising markets, with that trial anticipated to commence in August.
The settlement also unfolds amidst ongoing examination of Google’s broader data utilization, including recent clarifications on Google’s AI training data practices and the distinct ways publisher opt-outs are handled for AI models like Gemini compared to Google Search.
Data privacy has remained a persistent area of focus for Google. In late 2024, the company’s integration of AI into Chrome’s Enhanced Protection mode triggered discussions about user data management.
This was preceded by other incidents, such as allegations in 2023 of misleading users regarding location tracking practices, and an agreement in April 2024 where Google undertook to delete billions of data records following accusations of persistent tracking in Incognito mode, as covered by Fortune.
While Google has also been developing new privacy-centric tools, such as the IP Protection feature for its Chrome browser which was under discussion in late 2023, the vast scale and diversity of data the company processes ensure its practices remain under continuous public and regulatory scrutiny.
