Texas files lawsuit alleging that Google 'continues to systematically surveil customers and profit from customer data'

Texas and several other U.S. states recently filed a lawsuit against Google alleging that the company uses deceptive location tracking practices that invades the privacy of users.

Texas filed a lawsuit, along with Indiana, Washington and Washington, D.C. against Google alleging that the company engages in deceptive location tracking, according to Texas Standard. The lawsuits accuse Google of using "dark patterns" to mislead users.

"One of the suits says that Google designs its products to push or pressure people to provide more location data, either inadvertently or out of frustration," David Shepardson, who reported on the lawsuit for Reuters, told Texas Standard. "This is about other data that phones collect, beyond just that location history. And Google is able to use that data to continue to amass data about where users are and to help create profiles to help target advertising."

The lawsuits claim that the company uses deceptive location tracking to invade the privacy of users, according to Reuters.

"Google falsely led consumers to believe that changing their account and device settings would allow customers to protect their privacy and control what personal data the company could access," Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine's office said in a statement. 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleged that Google misleads consumers with their location tracking policies. 

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda defended the company and claimed that the issues being brought forward were no longer relevant, stating that the "attorneys general are bringing a case based on inaccurate claims and outdated assertions about our settings. We have always built privacy features into our products and provided robust controls for location data. We will vigorously defend ourselves and set the record straight."

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in 2020, Google made nearly $150 billion from advertising. 

"Location data is key to Google’s advertising business. Consequently, it has a financial incentive to dissuade users from withholding access to that data," Ferguson's office said in a statement.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said the allegations show that tech companies continue to mislead, deceive and prioritize profits over privacy.

"Congress must urgently meet this moment in the privacy crisis by passing a comprehensive law that provides the privacy protections that Americans need and deserve," Blumenthal said.

A lawsuit similar to the one filed by Texas was filed by Arizona in 2020, Reuters reported. Google was recently told that the lawsuit will not be thrown out, a course of action argued for by the company.