The state attorney general on Monday announced a nearly $392 million settlement with Google over allegations that it misled consumers about when location-tracking services collect information. about consumers.
Jeff Chiu / AP
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Jeff Chiu / AP
The state attorney general on Monday announced a nearly $392 million settlement with Google over allegations that it misled consumers about when location-tracking services collect information. about consumers.
Jeff Chiu / AP
Google has agreed to pay nearly $392 million in a settlement with 40 states over allegations that the company tracks people through their devices, even when location tracking is turned off, a joint venture. state prosecutors announced Monday.
Authorities say Google violated consumer protection laws by misleading users about when they secretly recorded their movements. It then feeds the surreptitiously collected data to advertisers, the source of nearly all of Google’s revenue.
“For years, Google has prioritized profits over user privacy,” said Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, who led the investigation with Nebraska. “They were cunning and deceitful.”
The attorney general says that the payment is the largest ever privacy payment by many countries.
As part of the deal, Google is committed to making a number of changes that will make the company’s location tracking practices more transparent, including showing users more information when they turn it on or off. Tracks location and provides a detailed summary of the location data that Google regularly collects on a consumer-accessible website.
A Google spokesperson said in a statement to NPR that the methods outlined in the lawsuit are old and have been improved.
Google spokesman José Castañeda said: “Consistent with the improvements we’ve made in recent years, we’ve settled this investigation based on outdated product policies we’ve adopted. I changed years ago.”
State’s settlement on online privacy comes as Washington lawmakers fail to pass comprehensive data privacy legislation in the US
Despite support from both sides for the passage of national privacy legislation, Parliament has failed to act, lagging behind data protection legislation in Europe.
That has led each country to pass its own online privacy protections. Five states, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah and Virginia, Issued Comprehensive consumer data privacy legislation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
State prosecutors used Monday’s settlement to urge lawmakers in Washington to pass nationwide data protection measures.
“Until we have comprehensive privacy legislation in place, companies will continue to compile large amounts of our personal data for marketing purposes with few controls,” Oregon AG Rosenblum said. in a statement.
State prosecutors said they launched an investigation after Associated Press report in 2018 revealed that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones continued to store user location data even when location tracking was turned off in privacy settings.
Last month, Google settle a lawsuit with authorities in Arizona for $85 million stemming from similar allegations that the tech giant had fraudulently deployed location tracking on phones to provide advertisers with data about consumers.
