Google has agreed to pay the state of California $93 million to settle a lawsuit from the state alleging that the company has violated California’s consumer protection laws.
According to The California Department of Justice, Google was collecting, storing, and using location data for California customers for its advertising pursuits without the consent of the customers.
According to the complaint, Google was also collecting information about a customer’s location even when they had the location settings on the device turned off.
“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,” Attorney General Bonta said in a statement.
Additionally, the complaint claims that Google deceived users about their ability to opt out of advertisements that were targeted to their specific location.
In addition to the cash settlement, Google has also agreed to some inductive terms set forth by the state. Specifically, Google will now:
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 ad 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.
Google previously settled similar lawsuits in both Washington and Arizona.
