Google is being sued in Texas over how it collects and uses personally identifiable data.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit claiming that the company did not adequately require users in the state to consent to the collection and use of voice and facial information.
It is alleged that through these actions, Google has violated state laws on biometric data, and has done so many times since 2015.
Google services and data privacy
According to Paxton, Google Photos, Google Assistant and the company’s Nest series of products all collect data they use to improve artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms.
Google says, of course, that Paxton gets the whole thing wrong.
“AG Paxton once again mischaracterizes our products in another impressive lawsuit,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement.
For example, Google Photos helps you organize people’s photos, by grouping similar faces, so that you can easily find old photos. Of course, this is only visible to you and you can easily turn off this feature if you choose to and we do not use photos or videos in Google Images for advertising purposes.
“The same goes for Voice Match and Face Match on the Nest Hub Max, two non-virtual features that give users the option to allow Google Assistant to recognize their voice or face to show their information. We’ll put things right.”
If you feel like Google is a little sick of Paxton, you might not be far off. Paxton has been stalking Google many times now.
The Texas attorney general is driving A coalition of countries sues Google on antitrust groundsclaiming to illegally monopolize the market for online advertising technology.
In September 2022, Paxton Claim That Facebook and Google colluded with each other over an online advertising deal was excluded from court on the grounds that the companies were only pursuing their own interests.
However, in the same ruling, the antitrust coalition case was allowed to continue, so it’s entirely possible that this latest data privacy issue will remain as well.
Across: CNBC (Opens in a new tab)
