Google agree to a $ 391.5 million one dollar bill colonisation on Monday to terminate a lawsuit accusing the tech giant of tricking user with location data secrecy scope that did n’t really turn off data collecting . The payout , the result of a lawsuit bring by 40 state attorneys general , marks one of the bragging privacy colonisation in history . Google also promised to make additional modification to clarify its location trailing practices next class .
“ For years Google has prioritise profit over their exploiter ’ privacy , ” said Ellen Rosenblum , Oregon ’s lawyer superior general who Centennial State - lead the case , in a press loss . “ They have been crafty and deceptive . consumer thought they had turned off their placement tracking feature on Google , but the company continued to secretly record their movements and used that entropy for advertisers . ”
Google describe sever changes the company agreed to as part of the settlement in ablog postpublished Monday . The company will show exploiter extra information when then flex on or off their account ’s location configurations , put up a fresh ascendancy that get users turn off trailing and delete already collected data with a unmarried process , and import out its privacy mise en scene more explicitly when multitude make Modern Google accounts .
Photo: ALAIN JOCARD / Contributor (Getty Images)
“ coherent with improvements we ’ve made in recent geezerhood , we havesettled this investigation which was based on outdated product policiesthat we change old age ago , ” a Google spokesperson said in an email .
The attorneys ’ investigation into Google and subsequent lawsuit came after a2018 reportthat found Google ’s Location story mise en scene did n’t kibosh the company ’s location trailing , even though the background promised that “ with Location History off , the position you go are no longer stored . ” Google quickly updated the verbal description of its options , clarifying that you in reality have to turn off a altogether different circumstance called Web & App Activity if you want the company to stop following you around .
The mislabeled setting prompted four class of legal headaches for the Google . Last month , the fellowship settled a unlike lawsuit with the Arizona state of matter attorney general over the same issue for $ 85 million , bringing the total Google will ante up out over the problem to about half a billion dollars . The company face even more lawsuits related to the trouble with regulator in Washington , D.C. , Indiana and Texas .
Despite wave of legal and medium attention , Google ’s location settingsare still confusing , according to experts in interface intent . The fine print make it clear that you need to exchange multiple setting if you do n’t want Google collecting data point about everywhere you go , but you have to read cautiously . It remains to be see how clearly the changes the company promised in the colony will communicate its datum pattern .
In the absence of any meaningful concealment rules at the Union degree , a telephone number of state happen their own privacy laws over the past few as business over information exit have infix the mainstream . California , Virginia , Illinois , and a number of other states now have general data protective cover rule , but even in those states , the rules are far from comprehensive .
There ’s bipartisan support for a federal seclusion law , the American Data Privacy and Protection Act , which the political science camecloser than everto passing this year , but the nib go wrong to make it through Congress .
For now , regulators are forced to exercise with what they have . The one consumer tribute rule that applies across the board is that caller are n’t take into account to trick you , and land and federal regulator have started coming after the technical school industry for misleading people . Just last workweek , Apple was suedafter Gizmodo solely reported that the company compile analytics dataeven after you turn offthe iPhone Analytics privateness setting . Facebook dealt with similar legal trouble in a $ 5 billion okay from the FTC , which found , among legion other problems , that the social medium companionship will millions of usersunable to ferment off facial recognitionafter promising that anyone could opt - out .
Update 2025-04-03 , 1:50 p.m. ET : This narrative has been updated with a commentary from Google and more details about the updates the company concur to in the settlement .
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