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Al-Swaha, Leaders of Major Global Technology Companies Discuss Partnerships

Al-Swaha met with executives from Meta, Qualcomm, ServiceNow, Bhartinews, and Builder.ai in Davos. SPA
Al-Swaha met with executives from Meta, Qualcomm, ServiceNow, Bhartinews, and Builder.ai in Davos. SPA
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Al-Swaha, Leaders of Major Global Technology Companies Discuss Partnerships

Al-Swaha met with executives from Meta, Qualcomm, ServiceNow, Bhartinews, and Builder.ai in Davos. SPA
Al-Swaha met with executives from Meta, Qualcomm, ServiceNow, Bhartinews, and Builder.ai in Davos. SPA

Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah bin Amer Al-Swaha held several meetings in Davos with leaders of major international technology companies to discuss the expansion of their projects and innovative solutions in the Kingdom.

The meetings came as part of the Kingdom's participation in the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Al-Swaha met with executives from Meta, Qualcomm, ServiceNow, Bhartinews, and Builder.ai.

Al-Swaha also held talks with Japanese Minister of Digital Transformation Taro Kano.

The ministers discussed strengthening the strategic partnership between the two friendly countries, joint initiatives, and ways to deepen cooperation in the areas of supporting the growth of the digital economy, innovation, digital entrepreneurship, and encouraging technical investments.

They also discussed the possibility of establishing joint programs to exchange expertise, support government digital transformation, and harness emerging technologies to support the digital economy.

Al-Swaha met separately with Indian Minister for Railways, Communications, and Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw.
They discussed the progress made in digital and innovative initiatives within the Saudi-Indian Strategic Partnership Council, aimed at supporting the growth of the digital economy and stimulating innovation and entrepreneurship between the two countries.

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Google Will Pay Texas $1.4 Billion to Settle Claims the Company Collected Users’ Data without Permission

A Google logo is seen at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, US, November 1, 2018. (Reuters)
A Google logo is seen at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, US, November 1, 2018. (Reuters)
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Google Will Pay Texas $1.4 Billion to Settle Claims the Company Collected Users’ Data without Permission

A Google logo is seen at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, US, November 1, 2018. (Reuters)
A Google logo is seen at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, US, November 1, 2018. (Reuters)

Google will pay $1.4 billion to Texas to settle claims the company collected users' data without permission, the state’s attorney general announced Friday.

Attorney General Ken Paxton described the settlement as sending a message to tech companies that he will not allow them to make money off of “selling away our rights and freedoms.”

“In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law,” Paxton said in a statement. “For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won.”

The agreement settles several claims Texas made against the search giant in 2022 related to geolocation, incognito searches and biometric data. The state argued Google was “unlawfully tracking and collecting users’ private data.”

Paxton claimed, for example, that Google collected millions of biometric identifiers, including voiceprints and records of face geometry, through such products and services as Google Photos and Google Assistant.

Google spokesperson José Castañeda said the agreement settles an array of “old claims,” some of which relate to product policies the company has already changed.

“We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services,” he said in a statement.

The company also clarified that the settlement does not require any new product changes.

Paxton said the $1.4 billion is the largest amount won by any state in a settlement with Google over this type of data-privacy violations.

Texas previously reached two other key settlements with Google within the last two years, including one in December 2023 in which the company agreed to pay $700 million and make several other concessions to settle allegations that it had been stifling competition against its Android app store.

Meta has also agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas in a privacy lawsuit over allegations that the tech giant used users' biometric data without their permission.