Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Google in state court early Thursday, accusing the technology company of illegally gathering the faces and voices of millions of Texans without their informed consent.
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The privacy suit alleges that various products like Google Photos, Google Assistant and Nest Hub Max enabled the collection of users’ biometric data, such as “the unique characteristics of an individual’s face and voice.” But because Google never obtained Texans’ advanced consent, the alleged practice violates the state’s 2009 Capture or Use of Biometric Identifiers Act, according to a copy of the complaint provided by the attorney general’s office on Thursday.
“Google’s all-encompassing effort to use its commercial products to capture biometric identifiers of unwitting Texan users and non-users alike is alarming,” the suit claimed. “It is also unlawful under the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act, which the Texas Legislature specifically designed to protect Texans’ privacy by preventing such conduct.”
Currently, Paxton is only seeking a temporary injunction, however he hopes to achieve a permanent injunction, barring Google from gaining biometric identifiers and performing voice or facial recognition without Texas users’ informed consent. The proposed injunction also aims to prevent Google from failing to destroy the identifiers within a reasonable time period.
The complaint outlines that companies operating in Texas have been prohibited from collecting individuals’ faces, voices or other biometric data without advanced, informed consent for more than a decade.
“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 said. “Indeed, all across the state, everyday Texans have become unwitting cash cows being milked by Google for profits.”
The lawsuit is one of several filed by states against the tech giant alleging unfair practices with regard to privacy. 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.
Paxton said in a statement that the “indiscriminate collection” of such data “will not be tolerated.”
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