These charges against Google in Texas hint at a predisposition of Big Tech to abuse its powers. Let’s pray for an end to such abuses.

From UPI. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday that he has filed a lawsuit against Google for allegedly having “unlawfully” captured the biometric data of “millions of Texans” without their consent.

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“Google’s indiscriminate collection of the personal information of Texans, including very sensitive information like biometric identifiers, will not be tolerated,” Paxton said in a statement. …

Paxton alleged that Google had collected and stored voice prints and records of face geometry from Texans Google Photos, Google Assistant and its Nest smart-home products since 2015 without their informed consent, according to the lawsuit.

“Indeed, all across the state, everyday Texans have become unwitting cash cows being milked by Google for profits,” Paxton … wrote in the lawsuit.

“Many Texans do not realize that their contributions to the tech giant’s financial growth include offering up for inspection two of the most uniquely personal features any individual has to call their own.”

Paxton called the “commercialization” of such data “as invasive as it is dangerous” and said that they “cannot be simply erased or replaced when stolen” unlike passwords and social security numbers.

“Many Texans do not know or understand that Google powers Google Photos by recording and analyzing sensitive biometric information,” Paxton alleged in the lawsuit.

“But, even more striking is the fact that, through the Face Grouping process, Google captures and stores sensitive biometric data about Texan users and non-users alike — and Google stores that data for an unreasonable amount of time.” …

“But there is more — Google is also listening,” Paxton said, alleging that the company’s voice-controlled products are “listening to and analyzing every voice it hears, without regard to whether a speaker has consented to Google’s indiscriminate voice printing.”

The lawsuit comes after a federal appeals court last month upheld a Texas law that paves the way for lawsuits against social media companies for engaging in content moderation.