Google pays Texas with $1.375 billion in the country’s largest data privacy payment

“Big technology doesn’t go beyond the law,” said Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General, on Thursday. “Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even VoicePrints and Facial Geometry.

That victory marks the largest data privacy payment ever protected by a single state against Google. According to Paxton’s Office, the deal stems from a 2022 lawsuit accusing Google of tracking Texans without proper consent, accusing them of knowing everything from location data to biometric identifiers such as facial geometry and voice prints.

Bread Speed: Big Technology does not exceed the law. Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even VoicePrints and Facial Geometry. I fought back and won a historic $1.375 billion settlement. https://t.co/xrjs1k6gmj

– Attorney General Ken Paxton (@kenpaxtontx) May 9, 2025

Google hits with a $1.375 billion payment record in Texas for data privacy violations

The $1.375 billion payments are well beyond the previous settlements Google faces. For context, the coalition of 40 states collectively secured $391 million for similar data privacy violations. Texas alone only left about $1 billion apart. To date, no state has extracted more than $93 million from a company for violations of these types.

“For years, Google has been able to quietly siphon people’s personal information and use it to increase profits,” Paxton said in a statement. “This settlement sends a clear message. If you misuse your data, you will pay for it.”

This is not the first time Google has been punished for similar behavior. In 2023, the company was fined $155 million for illegally tracking users’ locations without consent. The settlement settled a claim filed by California and the private plaintiffs.

The Texas case has specifically targeted Google’s practices regarding browsing IncoGoog, tracking geographical wiring, and processing biometric data across platforms such as Android and Google Assistant. The lawsuit alleges that users were led to believe their activities were private when their activities were not, and that Google continued to collect data even after the users turned off tracking.

Paxton’s office has become known for actively chasing technology on a large scale around privacy and antitrust concerns. Last year, the state secured a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta (formerly Facebook) and earned another record set amount for illegally collecting facial recognition data. Texas also reached its previous settlement on Google, totaling over $700 million for anti-competitive behavior and deceptive business practices.

Norton Rose Fulbright served as an outside lawyer in the case.

With this latest victory, Paxton positions Texas as one of the nation’s most offensive states when it comes to holding the Tech Giants accountable for user privacy violations.