Texas Sues Google for Allegedly Collecting Biometric Data of Millions Without Consent – Washington Free Beacon

Tech big has ‘collected biometric information from innumerable Texans and used their faces and their voices to serve Google’s industrial ends,’ based on criticism

Reuters • October 20, 2022 12:20 pm

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—Texas has filed a lawsuit towards Alphabet’s Google for allegedly amassing biometric information of thousands and thousands of Texans with out acquiring correct consent, the legal professional common’s workplace stated in an announcement on Thursday.

The criticism says that corporations working in Texas have been barred for greater than a decade from amassing folks’s faces, voices or different biometric information with out superior, knowledgeable consent.

“In blatant defiance of that legislation, Google has, since not less than 2015, collected biometric information from innumerable Texans and used their faces and their voices to serve Google’s industrial ends,” the criticism stated. “Certainly, all throughout the state, on a regular basis Texans have turn into unwitting money cows being milked by Google for income.”

Google didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

The gathering occurred by means of merchandise like Google Photographs, Google Assistant, and Nest Hub Max, the assertion stated.

The lawsuit is considered one of a number of filed by states towards Google alleging unfair practices with regard to privateness. Arizona settled one in early October for $85 million. Texas, Indiana, Washington State and the District of Columbia sued Google in January over what they known as misleading location-tracking practices that invade customers’ privateness.

Texas Legal professional Common Ken Paxton stated in an announcement that the “indiscriminate assortment” of such information “won’t be tolerated.”

(Reporting by Diane Bartz and David Shepardson; Enhancing by Chizu Nomiyama)