Google agrees to pay $392 million to settle location monitoring lawsuit

Google has agreed to pay a $391.5 million settlement to 40 states over allegations that the corporate tracked customers’ places with out their data (via The New York Times). As a part of the settlement, Google’s required to alert customers when location monitoring’s enabled, in addition to present info on flip off the characteristic beginning in 2023.

A coalition of attorneys common from Oregon, New York, Florida, Nebraska, and different states filed the lawsuit in response to a 2018 report from the Associated Press that reveals how Google silently tracked customers’ places throughout its numerous providers on iPhone and Android. The lawsuit alleges that from 2014 to 2019, Google misled customers into pondering their location had been switched off and would then use that info to promote customized advertisements.

In a blog post published Monday, Google says the lawsuit’s based mostly on “outdated product policies” that the corporate has already addressed. It’s nonetheless going to roll out some new options, although, together with a single info hub that “highlights key location settings to help people make informed choices about their data.” Google may also begin offering extra “detailed” details about the info it collects monitoring through the account setup course of and is launching a brand new toggle to show off and delete your location historical past and net and app exercise “in one simple flow.”

“For years Google has prioritized profit over their users’ privacy,” Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said in a statement. “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.”