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Oct. 20 (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. "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.
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"I will continue to fight Big Tech to ensure the privacy and security of all Texans."
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, who was indicted on felony securities fraud charges in 2015, 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."
Paxton went on to allege that Google has used the data to enhance its artificial intelligence algorithms.
"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.
House Bill 20, signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last year, is an effort to target "censorship" and the removal of political posts deemed to violate the terms of service for social media platforms.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which is known to be conservative, lifted an injunction levied by a lower court that had prevented the law from taking effect.
"AG Paxton is once again mischaracterizing our products in another breathless lawsuit," Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement to CNBC.
"For example, Google Photos helps you organize pictures of people, by grouping similar faces, so you can easily find old photos. Of course, this is only visible to you and you can easily turn off this feature if you choose and we do not use photos or videos in Google Photos for advertising purposes.
The same is true for Voice Match and Face Match on Nest Hub Max, which are off-by-default features that give users the option to let Google Assistant recognize their voice or face to show their information. We will set the record straight in court."
