Google just can’t keep its nose clean. Even as it trudges through the US courts over an antitrust hearing that alleges Google is an unfair monopoly, it’s reaching a settlement to pay $1.375 billion to Texas for unauthorized data collection.
It turns out that our skepticism, that doubt of “If I uncheck ‘location history,’ will they still track me?” was well founded. Google was slapped on the nose with a rolled up newspaper last week in what Texas’ Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office called a “historic win for Texans’ data privacy and security rights.”
in trouble once again
This isn’t the first time Google has paid out hefty settlements over its behavior surrounding user privacy. The Texas lawsuit sets a new record for the largest settlement Google has paid out to a state, topping its own record from September 2023 when it paid out $93 million to California. Before that, Google paid $391 million to a group of 40 states.
“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 Paxton, with a bit of Texas swagger.
“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.”
Paxton secured a $1.4 billion settlement for Texas in July 2024 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,” as Paxton’s office put it.
You’d think that after such a string of expensive settlements, a company would change its spots. But it evidently must be too lucrative to continue business as usual to bother.
After publication, Google spokesperson José Castañeda reached out to say, “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.”
Edited May 12, 2025 to add a statement by Google and updated the title accordingly.
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