DPIA

The wait is over
Ailance™ DPIA is here!

Texas reaches billion-dollar settlement with Google: "Big Tech is not above the law"

The US state of Texas has reached a settlement with Google for 1.375 billion US dollars.
Categories:

The US state of Texas has reached a settlement with Google for 1.375 billion US dollars. The settlement, led by Attorney General Ken Paxton, represents the largest settlement to date for data protection violations by a single state against Google in the USA.

Texas sues Google for data protection violations

The subject of the Texan lawsuit filed in 2022 was the systematic and covert collection of personal data by Google: in particular movement data (geolocation), biometric information (facial geometry, voice profiles) and activities in the incognito mode of the Chrome browser. According to the Public Prosecutor General's Office, this was done without the sufficiently informed and voluntary consent of the users concerned. 

The legal basis: There is no uniform federal data protection law in the USA. Texas also does not have a comprehensive data protection law, such as the one introduced in California. The lawsuit was therefore based, among other things, on the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) and general privacy regulations. This made it clear that data protection violations can also be effectively prosecuted on the basis of existing consumer protection laws.

"After years of aggressive litigation, Attorney General Paxton agreed to settle the state of Texas' privacy lawsuits against Google," the agency said in a statement.

Texas forges ahead with regulation

The US state of Texas has played an active role in recent years by achieving substantial settlements through targeted individual proceedings against technology companies. The Meta proceedings (USD 1.4 billion for unlawful facial recognition) and two earlier settlements with Google (USD 700 million for competition law infringements and USD 8 million for misleading business practices) are particularly worthy of mention here.

The current comparison with Google is exemplary of a constitutional positioning vis-à-vis economically dominant market players. Paxton's public statement "Big Tech is not above the law in Texas" underlines the political will to enforce data protection principles even against dominant market players.

From a regulatory perspective, the case is likely to serve as a signpost for future enforcement strategies of national players. And not just in the USA, but worldwide. The growing importance of biometric data, the opacity of user consent and the handling of seemingly protected modes such as "incognito mode" raise key questions.

Reading tip: Texas wants to set new standards in AI regulation

Need for action for companies

International corporations must ensure that their data processing practices comply with country-specific data protection requirements. This applies in particular to the implementation of principles such as "privacy by design", documented consent processes and transparent data protection declarations.

Compliance officers should continuously monitor the expectations of the regulatory authorities in various jurisdictions and implement them technically and organizationally.

Source: Press Release "Attorney General Ken Paxton Secures Historic $1.375 Billion Settlement with Google Related to Texans' Data Privacy Rights"

Tags:
Share this post :
en_USEnglish