- Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum today, along with 39 other state attorneys general, announced a landmark $391.5 million settlement with Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL Google over its location tracking practices.
- Google misled its users into thinking they had turned off location tracking in their account settings when, in fact, Google continued to collect their location information.
- Google has agreed to improve its location tracking disclosures significantly and user controls starting in 2023.
- A 2018 Associated Press article that revealed Google “records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to” triggered the investigation.
- The article focused on two Google account settings: Location History and Web & App Activity. Location History is “off” unless a user turns on the setting.
- Still, Web & App Activity, a separate account setting, is automatic “on” when users set up a Google account, including all Android users.
- The attorneys general found that Google violated state consumer protection laws by misleading consumers about its location-tracking practices since at least 2014.
- Specifically, by adjusting their account and device settings, Google confused its users about the extent to which they could limit Google’s location tracking.
- Google looks to “provide a new control that allows users to easily turn off their Location History and Web & App Activity settings and delete their past data in one simple flow.”
- Google also plans to add additional disclosures to its Activity controls and Data & Privacy pages.
- The Federal Trade Commission weighed a rule that would expand online privacy protections by targeting online surveillance and lax data-security practices by technology companies, the Wall Street Journal reports.
- Congress also explored bipartisan legislation to give Americans more control over their data.
- Google held $116.3 billion in cash and equivalents as of September 30.
- Image by Deepanker Verma from Pixabay
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