Skip to main content

Google to pay $392 million to 40 states in location-tracking settlement

Google has agreed to pay $391.5 million to 40 U.S. states to settle a dispute over location tracking.

The tech giant misled its users into believing they had turned off location tracking in their account settings, when Google actually continued to collect their location information, the Oregon Department of Justice (DoJ) said in a post on its website on Monday, November 14.

Recommended Videos

As part of the settlement, Google also agreed to “significantly improve” its location tracking disclosures and user controls, starting in 2023.

Google uses the personal and behavioral data it collects via location tracking and other methods to create a detailed user profile, a practice that enables the company to serve up lucrative targeted ads to devices.

The investigation that led to this week’s settlement was prompted by a 2018 Associated Press (AP) article that revealed that Google “records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to.”

The AP said at the time that the issue impacted around 2 billion devices running Google’s Android mobile operating system and hundreds of millions iPhones using Google Maps or the company’s Search site.

Its report looked at Google’s Location History and Web & App Activity settings, and found that while Location History is turned off by default and needs a user to manually activate it, Web & App Activity was automatically switched on when users set up a Google account.

The states’ investigation concluded that since 2014, Google broke state consumer protection laws by misleading users about its location-tracking system.

“Specifically, Google confused its users about the extent to which they could limit Google’s location tracking by adjusting their account and device settings,” Oregon’s DoJ said.

Besides the payout, the settlement requires Google to be clearer about its privacy practices by, for example, making it more obvious to users when they turn a location-related setting on or off. The company has also been told to provide users with detailed information regarding the kind of location data Google is pulling in, and also how it’s used, by clearly laying it out on a “Location Technologies” webpage.

“For years, Google has prioritized profit over their users’ privacy,” Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum commented in response to the settlement. “They have been crafty and deceptive. Consumers thought they had turned off their location-tracking features on Google, but the company continued to secretly record their movements and use that information for advertisers.”

Rosenblum added: “Until we have comprehensive privacy laws, companies will continue to compile large amounts of our personal data for marketing purposes with few controls.”

Digital Trends has reached out to Google for a response to the settlement and we will update this article when we hear back.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
A simultaneous smartphone shock is coming for Brits
Two people look at a smartphone.

Imagine the cacophony of some 85 million smartphones all going off at once. Well, that’s precisely what’s going to happen in the U.K. in September.  

It’s part of a test of the U.K.’s emergency alert system, and will involve the phones vibrating and making a siren sound for 10 seconds. The handsets will also show a message, though the precise wording has yet to be revealed.

Read more
How to watch Samsung unveil new foldables at Unpacked on Wednesday
A person using the open Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6.

Samsung’s next Galaxy Unpacked event is almost here, and Digital Trends will be there to take a closer look at all the new gear that it unveils.

The Korean tech giant is also livestreaming the occasion, which takes place in Brooklyn, New York City, on Wednesday morning ET. Read on to find out how you can watch.

Read more
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7: the upgrade we’ve been waiting for?
Thre Flip 7 models next to each other

I never really thought that I'd want to go down the route of owning a flip phone, ever since I swore off my Nokia in the early 2000s (you know, the one with the weird felt covering and tiny notification window).

Fast forward two decades, and I'm considering rejoining the race, thanks to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7. Coming in at $1,100, it's not cheap, but it's definitely something different compared to the world of black rectangles, and it it feels like Samsung’s Flip family has finally come of age.

Read more