AG Paxton files multi-state amicus brief against Google, says company ‘violates user privacy’
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AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last week filed an amicus brief supporting Google users in a lawsuit against the company for “deceptively collecting, using, and profiting from their private information,” according to a release from his office.
Attorneys General from 18 other states joined Texas in filing the brief.
Related: AG Paxton expands Google lawsuit to include private browsing, calls it ‘deceptive’
According to the release, the plaintiffs allege that Google “violated its agreements and profited from users’ personal information that was collected after the consumers had opted out of syncing their Chrome web browser to a Google account.” It says Google collected the data and claimed the users consented despite their objection to linking their browser activity to a Google account. A federal district court sided with Google.
In the brief, Paxton urges the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to reverse the lower court’s ruling. The brief argues that Google’s activity is “part of a larger pattern of the company exploiting consumers by abusing access to their data.”
The brief explains: “This case represents just one front in a larger conflict in which federal and state governments, along with private plaintiffs, are fighting to rein in alleged abuses by tech giants like Google, and the Court’s decision here may have repercussions well beyond this case.”
Attorney General Paxton has previously fought to protect Texans from Google’s expansive history of data privacy violations, suing the company for tracking user location without consent, capturing biometric data without authorization, and pushing misleading endorsements designed to deceive customers.
Read the brief below:
Calhoun-v-Google-Amicus-FilestampedDownload
KXAN reached out to Google to ask for a comment in response to the brief and will update this story when we hear back.
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