Google has just become the second tech giant after Meta to settle – for $1.4 billion – with the State of Texas under its “Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier” law. This allows the state to impose damages of up to $25,000 per violation for using citizen data without consent.

Slip-sliding away? California, which has previously led the way in privacy legislation, has opted to forgo rules it had drafted to regulate AI and similar systems. This results from the California Privacy Protection Agency’s decision to accede to business pressure to narrow the definition of “automated decision making,” allowing companies to opt out of rules by claiming algorithmic tools are just advisory to human decision making.