Google Settles Location History Probe, to Pay Nearly $400 Million

Google has agreed to settle $391.5 million to 40 states regarding the unpermitted location tracking allegations. Aside from this, the company will also now alert its users when their location is enabled and will be laying out basic information on how to turn off the feature.

Location Tracking Lawsuit

A $391.5 million settlement was agreed to pay by Google to 40 states over allegations that they have been tracking the location of their users without their consent. A group of attorneys that came from Oregon, New York, Florida, Nebraska, and other states initiated to file the lawsuit after the release of the report from Associated Press in 2018. It reveals that Google has been tracking the location of the users silently for both Android and iPhone users.

Based on the lawsuit, the tracking has been happening from 2014 to 2019, and for those years mentioned, Google allegedly misled its users by not informing them that their locations are enabled for the sake of personalized ads.

Not only they will be paying a huge amount of money to 40 states, but Google will also have to be transparent with its users. As part of the settlement, The Verge reported that Google must provide detailed information disclosing to its users about the data that they obtain when location tracking is enabled.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Millar stated, "When consumers make the decision to not share location data on their devices, they should be able to trust that a company will no longer track their every move. This settlement makes it clear that companies must be transparent in how they track customers and abide by state and federal privacy laws."

Google's Response

Google published a blog post on Monday and states that the allegations came from outdated policies and were already addressed by the company a long time ago. Based on a report from Reuters, Google still agreed to settle by rolling out new features, providing a single information hub (about location tracking), detailed information about the setup process, and how to disable the location.

Arizona's Claims

Last month, Google also settled $85 million to resolve the claims of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich that the company has been illegally tracking the locations of Android users in Arizona, which was originally filed in 2020. The attorney also initiated the filing because of the same article from Associated Press.

The fund that they will be receiving from Google will go directly to Arizona's general fund for education, broadband, privacy efforts, the outside counsel of the attorney general.

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Written by Inno Flores