Texas has filed a lawsuit against Alphabet’s Google for allegedly collecting biometric data on millions of Texans without their consent, according to a statement released by the attorney general’s office on Thursday.
According to the complaint, companies operating in Texas have been prohibited from collecting people’s faces, voices, or other biometric data without advanced, informed consent for more than a decade.
“Google has, since at least 2015, collected biometric data from innumerable Texans and used their faces and voices to serve Google’s commercial ends,” according to the complaint. “In fact, across the state, ordinary Texans have become unwitting cash cows being milked for profit by Google.”
Google did not immediately respond to a comment request.
According to the statement, the data was gathered using Google Photos, Google Assistant, and Nest Hub Max.
The lawsuit is one of several filed by states against Google alleging unfair privacy practices. Arizona settled one for $85 million in early October. In January, Texas, Indiana, Washington State, and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against Google for what they called deceptive location-tracking practices that violated users’ privacy.
In a statement, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stated that the “indiscriminate collection” of such data “will not be tolerated.”