Google to pay Texas $1.375 billion in nation’s largest data privacy settlement

“Big Tech is not above the law,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Thursday. “Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry. I fought back and won a historic $1.375 billion settlement.”

That win marks the largest-ever data privacy settlement secured by a single state against Google. According to Paxton’s office, the agreement stems from a 2022 lawsuit accusing Google of tracking Texans without proper consent, capturing everything from location data to biometric identifiers, including facial geometry and voiceprints.

🚨 BREAKING: Big Tech is not above the law. Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their 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 hit with record $1.375 billion settlement in Texas over data privacy violations

The $1.375 billion payout far exceeds previous settlements Google has faced. For context, a coalition of 40 states collectively secured $391 million for similar data privacy violations—almost a billion dollars less than Texas alone just walked away with. Until now, no state had extracted more than $93 million from the company for these types of violations.

“For years, Google has been quietly siphoning off people’s private information and using it to boost profits,” Paxton said in a statement. “This settlement sends a clear message: If you misuse our data, you’ll pay for it.”

This isn’t the first time Google has been penalized for similar conduct. In 2023, the company was fined $155 million for illegally tracking users’ locations without their consent. That settlement resolved claims brought by the state of California and private plaintiffs, who accused Google of misleading consumers about location tracking and using their data without proper permission.

The Texas case specifically targeted Google’s practices around incognito browsing, geolocation tracking, and its handling of biometric data across platforms like Android and Google Assistant. The lawsuit claimed users were led to believe their activities were private when they weren’t, and that Google kept collecting data even after users turned off tracking.

Paxton’s office has become known for aggressively going after Big Tech over privacy and antitrust concerns. Last year, the state secured a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta (formerly Facebook) for illegally collecting facial recognition data—another record-setting amount. Texas has also reached previous settlements with Google over anticompetitive behavior and deceptive business practices, totaling more than $700 million.

Norton Rose Fulbright served as outside counsel in the case.

With this latest win, Paxton is positioning Texas as one of the most aggressive states in the country when it comes to holding tech giants accountable for user privacy violations.