Texas sues Google for allegedly using people’s faces and voices without consent

Texas is suing tech giant Google for allegedly collecting biometric data of millions of Texans without obtaining proper consent, the attorney general’s office said in a statement on Thursday.

In its complaint, Texas says that companies operating in the state have been barred for more than a decade from collecting people’s faces, voices or other biometric data without advanced, informed consent.

“In blatant defiance of that law, Google has, since at least 2015, collected biometric data from innumerable Texans and used their faces and their voices to serve Google*s commercial ends,” the complaint says. “Indeed, all across the state, everyday Texans have become unwitting cash cows being milked by Google for profits.”

The “indiscriminate collection” of such data “will not be tolerated”, said Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, in a statement.

The collection occurred through products like Google Photos, Google Assistant, and Nest Hub Max, according to the statement.

Google did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The lawsuit is one of several filed by US states against Google alleging unfair practices with regard to privacy. Arizona settled one in early October for $85m. Texas, Indiana, Washington state and the District of Columbia sued Google in January over what they called deceptive location-tracking practices that invade users’ privacy.