• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, January 9, 2025

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton can't proceed with claims that Google misled state residents about its privacy practices because the company lacks sufficient ties to the state, an appeals court ruled Thursday.

“It is undisputed that appellant is not incorporated in Texas and does not maintain a principal place of business there,” Justice Jaime Tijerina of the 13th District Court of Appeals wrote in an opinion joined by Justices Clarissa Silva and Lionel Aron Peña, Jr.

They added that the claims against Google stemmed from its statements regarding privacy -- which were not made by any of Google's approximately 5,500 Texas-based employees.

The evidence shows that [Google's] employees directed the alleged misleading statements from afar, which is insufficient to confer specific jurisdiction,” Tijerina wrote.

The decision comes in a battle dating to January 2022, when Paxton sued Google for allegedly duping consumers about its collection and use of location data.

“Google has become one of the richest companies in the world, in part, by deceiving Texans and profiting off their confusion,” Paxton alleged, adding that Google “has systematically misled, deceived, and withheld material facts from users in Texas about how their location is tracked and used and how to stop Google from monetizing their movements.”

Those allegations appear to stem from a 2018 Associated Press report that Google stores location data gleaned from some services, including search and maps, even when users attempt to prevent their data from being collected.

The AP reported that even when the "Location History" setting is turned off, Google still gathers some location data unless people turn off a separate setting -- "Web and App Activity." After that report came out, Google revised a “help” page by adding language informing people that turning off Location History doesn't affect other location services, and that some location data may still be saved.

Paxton later amended his complaint to also allege that Google deceptively collected data from users who browsed in incognito mode.

Paxton wasn't the only attorney general to sue Google over the location-privacy claims. The company also faced suit by law enforcement officials throughout the country, and a related class-action by consumers.

In November 2022, Google agreed to pay $392 million to settle location-privacy related claims brought by 40 state attorneys general, and in 2023 Googleagreed to pay $93 million to settle a suit brought by California's attorney general, and $62 million to resolve a related consumer class-action.

Separately, Google was also sued by consumers over alleged data collection from people who browsed in incognito mode. In April, the company agreed to destroy or “remediate” data it collected from “incognito” users, in order to settle a class-action privacy lawsuit.