Google Sued for Unauthorized Collection of Biometric Data

Lawsuit Filed in Texas Following Arizona Case

(Photo by Reuters)

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Google has been sued consecutively by U.S. state governments for allegedly collecting biometric data without user consent.

On the 20th (local time), according to major foreign media, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stated, "We have confirmed that Google has been collecting biometric data such as the voices and faces of millions of Texas residents without authorization, and we have filed a lawsuit."

According to the biometric privacy law introduced by Texas in 2009, companies must obtain consent from individuals when using or collecting biometric data such as facial recognition, fingerprints, iris scans, and voice data.

Under this law, the state government can file lawsuits on behalf of consumers, and if violations are confirmed, fines of up to $25,000 (approximately 35.67 million KRW) per case can be imposed.

According to the complaint, Texas pointed out that since 2015, Google has extensively and unlawfully collected biometric data through services such as Google Photos, Google Nest, and Google Assistant, which violates the biometric privacy law.

Attorney General Paxton said, "These services have infringed on everyone's rights by scanning faces and voices without the knowledge or consent of both users and non-users, achieving commercial purposes," adding, "We will not tolerate indiscriminate data collection."

Regarding this lawsuit, Google has not issued a comment, according to The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Previously, the states of Arizona, Indiana, and Washington had sued Google over privacy violations.

In Arizona, which has strong biometric privacy laws, a class-action lawsuit was filed claiming that the facial recognition feature of the Google Photos app infringes on biometric information, and earlier last month, Google agreed to pay a settlement of $85 million (approximately 121.7 billion KRW).