According to Republican Attorney Ken Paxton, Google has collected millions of biometric fingerprints, such as the texture of the voice or the geometric structure of the face, particularly through photo storage and editing services or voice-activated devices.

It is a groundless resumptionsaid Jose Castanedaa Google spokesman who was contacted by theAFP.

Google Photos helps you organize your pictures by grouping similar faces so you can easily find old photos of different peoplehe explained. You can easily turn off this option if you wish, and we don’t use photos or videos in Google Photos for ad targeting purposes.

The same principles apply to other services like voice assistant Google Assistant and Nest series smart speakers, which can recognize users’ voices, he added.

The complaint accuses Google of using this information for commercial purposes, specifically to improve its artificial intelligence technologies, which need a lot of data to work well.

Whenever Google’s algorithms process photos and videos to recognize specific faces and objects […]Google’s artificial intelligence is getting better, more informed, more efficient and more dominantsay the lawyers in the document.

” Across the state, Texans have become ignorant cash cows, exploited by Google for its profits. »

The very conservative Ken Paxton, known for his anti-tech positions, filed similar lawsuits against Meta (Facebook, Instagram) last February.

increase in complaints

US states and consumer groups have filed complaints against major platforms over privacy concerns over the past few years, as the country has no federal law on the subject.

In February, Meta agreed to pay $90 million to end a lawsuit in California over tracking users even after they opted out of the platform for ad targeting purposes.

Facebook had previously agreed in 2021 to pay $650 million to end a privacy lawsuit between it and 1.6 million Illinois users.