ALBAWABA — Alphabet’s Google agreed to pay $391.5 million to 40 US states to settle an investigation over its location-tracking practices, the office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced on Monday.
In addition to the largest privacy settlement in US history, Google agreed to be more transparent with consumers about the types of location data Google collects, its location-tracking practices and giving users more detailed information about location-tracking data.
The Oregon and Nebraska attorney generals-led settlement also limits Google's use and storage of certain kinds of location information.
The legal action was prompted by a 2018 Associated Press investigation which revealed that Google “records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to”, impacting around 2 billion devices running Google’s Android mobile operating system and hundreds of millions of iPhones using Google Maps or the company’s search site.
Downplaying the settlement, Google spokesperson José Castañeda in a statement said: "Consistent with improvements we've made in recent years, we have settled this investigation which was based on outdated product policies that we changed years ago."
In a blog post on Monday Google said that it would be “making updates in the coming months to provide even greater controls and transparency over location data” that would include making it easier to delete location data such as having auto-delete controls that allow users to order Google to delete certain information after a specific time.
"The company's online reach enables it to target consumers without the consumer's knowledge or permission. However, the transparency requirements of this settlement will ensure that Google not only makes users aware of how their location data is being used, but also how to change their account settings if they wish to disable location-related account settings, delete the data collected and set data retention limits," Nessel said in a statement.
Nessel added that Google makes the majority of its revenue from using the personal data of those who search in its browsers and use its apps.
Google had revenue of $111 billion from advertising in the first half of this year, buoyed by its consumer location data that helps cut through the digital clutter, making ads grab the consumer’s attention by being more relevant.
