Alphabet’s Google has been ordered to pay $391.5 million to settle location tracking lawsuits from 40 US states. The allegations claim the tech giant illegally tracked users’ locations, a coalition of state prosecutors announced.
It is understood that users of Google were being tracked even when they believed their location tracking had been turned off in their account settings, Oregon’s AG office said.
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This allowed Google to continue to collect information on their whereabouts and movements.
“For too long the likes of Google have been given carte blanche to act as they please and essentially self-regulate, but these companies have shown time and time again that they can’t be trusted,” Angel Maldonado, CEO of commerce search and discovery platform developer Empathy, tells Verdict.
Along with the fines, the settlement has ordered Google to be more transparent with their users going into 2023.
The tech giant must provide clearer tracking disclosures and have a web page to inform users about location tracking data, including when tracking occurs.
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By GlobalDataAccording to the release, it’s reportedly the largest consumer privacy settlement ever led by a group of attorneys general.
Experts in the industry have claimed the settlement is a stark warning to Big Tech’s use of location tracking.
“It is inevitable there will be a rush to exploit such data for the valuable insights it contains, but businesses must be careful to do so lawfully, fairly and transparently,” Will Richmond-Coggan, data and privacy expert with law firm Freeths LLP, tells Verdict, “otherwise, they risk robust sanctions and significant compensation claims.”
Google stated in a blog post that it would make updates to provide users with “greater controls and transparency over location data.
These updates include revamping user information hubs, simplifying the deletion of location data, and updated set-ups of accounts.
