Google Settles $155 Million Lawsuit Over Location Tracking Deception: What You Need to Know

California: “Google Settles $155 Million Lawsuit for location Tracking of users” To resolve charges that the search engine business deceived users about how it tracks their movements and uses their data without their knowledge, Google has agreed to pay $155 million to settle lawsuits brought by California and individual litigants. Both agreements resolve claims that an Alphabet Inc. unit deceived users by falsely promising that it would not track their locations or use their data for advertising even if they turned off their “location history” setting and deceiving them about their ability to block unwanted ads.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said, “Google was telling its users one thing – that it would not track their location once they got out – but was doing the opposite and continuing to track their activities for its own commercial gain. Which is not at all acceptable.”

Google will pay $93 million as part of the California settlement and be more open about how it tracks users’ locations and makes use of ad hoc data. With the private litigants, Google will pay $62 million, subject to legal fees, to nonprofit groups approved by the court that monitor internet privacy concerns. Google Settles $155 Million Lawsuit for location Tracking of users.

Valley lawyers said the settlement made sense because it would have been “impossible” to distribute money to the nearly 247.7 million U.S. adults with mobile devices.

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Critics argue that this type of settlement, known as a “cy pres” settlement, provides very little benefit to class members.

Mountain View, California-based company has also settled for $124.9 million with Arizona and Washington.

A Google spokesperson referred on Friday to a blog post discussing the multi-state settlements and said, “This relates to old product policies we changed years ago.”

Past History:

In 2020, Arizona filed a lawsuit against Google for allegedly deceiving users about location tracking. A record $391.5 million settlement was reached between Google and 40 U.S. states last year to address complaints about collecting user data without their permission. In December 2022, Google was ordered to pay $9.5 million for using “dark patterns” and deceptive location tracking practices to attack users’ privacy.

In this case, Google is accused of delivering targeted ads to users despite them turning off their “location history” setting. California Attorney General Rob Bonta stated: “Google represented in its settings that once a user chose to turn off location history, their location would not be tracked.”

Conclusion:

The ongoing discussion concerning user privacy and data storage has been significantly advanced by the $155 million settlement regarding Google’s location monitoring. Users will have more control over their location data and how companies use it. However, users should still remain cautious about sharing their location data with any company.”