Google settled two privacy lawsuits last week. The data and information goliath will pay $9.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by D.C. and another $20 million to settle with Indiana following lawsuits filed by both states charging Google for making it “nearly impossible” for people to opt-out of location tracking.
The last few months have been expensive for Google. In November, Google agreed to pay $391.5 million to a group of 40 states in the largest AG consumer privacy settlement in U.S. history.
Indiana and Washington DC were not part of the November settlement. Indiana and Washington DC chose to file their own lawsuits. In Indiana’s case, the split allowed the state to gain more on the settlement terms.
“Google misled its users into thinking they had turned off location tracking in their account settings, when, in fact, Google continued to collect their location information. In addition to the multimillion-dollar settlement, as part of the negotiations with the AGs, Google has agreed to significantly improve its location tracking disclosures and user controls starting in 2023.” This text is taken from the DoJ’s press release in the November lawsuit.
Google allegedly prioritized its profit over users’ privacy for years. Investigations started in 2018 following an AP article that dropped the explosive claim that Google tracks its users’ location, even when users explicitly request not to be tracked. Google used deceptive tactics to pull off this feat, leaving some less-known settings enabled by default, even when consumers chose to disable their location history.
Google will now maintain a webpage that explains its location-tracking policies and will clearly show users how their data will be used. Google will not be able to sell or share location data without explicit consent, and even with consent, must delete the data within a month.
With data privacy legislation being actively pushed on a state and national level, consumers will only be gaining more control over their personal data in the coming year. And it will likely be an expensive year for companies that don’t change their tactic in how they handle and share personal information.
