Google Agrees to $93 Million Settlement Over Tracking Users

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Google Agrees to $93 Million Settlement Over Tracking Users

Google has agreed to a $93 million settlement with California over tracking users even when they had turned off location tracking.

Google was accused of continuing to track users despite their opting out, a violation of California’s consumer protection laws. California Attorney General Rob Bonta says the company continued to collect, store, and profit off of consumers’ location data despite leading those consumers to believe they were no longer being tracked.

AG Bonta says Google misled customers by telling them that turning off “Location History” would prevent their data from being collected when, in fact, the company simply used other means to continue tracking them. In addition, the complaint accuses Google of misleading users about whether they could opt out of targeted advertising.

In addition to the monetary settlement, Google agreed to a number of concessions aimed at ensuring it does not repeat this behavior, including:

• Show additional information to users when enabling location-related account settings.
• Provide more transparency about location tracking.
• Provide users with detailed information about the location data that Google collects and how it is used through a “Location Technologies” webpage.
• Disclose to users that their location information may be used for ads personalization.
• Disclose to users before using Location History data to build ad targeting profiles for users.
• Obtain review by Google’s internal Privacy Working Group and document approval for all material changes to location-setting and ads personalization disclosures that will have a material impact on privacy.

“Our investigation revealed that Google was telling its users one thing – that it would no longer track their location once they opted out – but doing the opposite and continuing to track its users’ movements for its own commercial gain. That’s unacceptable, and we’re holding Google accountable with today’s settlement,” said Attorney General Bonta. “I want to thank my Consumer Protection Section for their work on this matter and for securing important privacy safeguards on behalf of all Californians.”

Google Agrees to $93 Million Settlement Over Tracking Users
Matt Milano

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