Mass to receive $9.3M from Google tracking settlement
Massachusetts is slated to receive $9.3 million and Google faces a slew of new requirements under a settlement over the tech giant’s location tracking practices.
The $391.5 million, 40-state settlement concludes an investigation that found Google “violated state consumer protection laws by misleading consumers about its location tracking practices since at least 2014,” according to Attorney General Maura Healey’s office.
Google, based in Mountain View, California, said it fixed the problems several years ago.
“Consistent with improvements we’ve made in recent years, we have settled this investigation, which was based on outdated product policies that we changed years ago,” company spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement.
State prosecutors opened their Google investigation following a 2018 Associated Press article that revealed that Google can record a person’s movements even when the “Location History” setting is turned off because “Web & App Activity,” a separate account setting that also tracks location, is automatically turned on when users set up Google accounts, including all Android phone users.
“Google uses the personal and behavioral data it collects to build detailed user profiles and target ads on behalf of its advertising customers,” Healey’s office said. “Location data is among the most sensitive and valuable personal information Google collects — even a limited amount of location data can expose a person’s identity and routines. This data has the potential to reveal intimate and sensitive details, including, as Google has acknowledged, whether a person has sought reproductive health care.”
“Technology companies need to be upfront with users about how and when their data is tracked and shared, especially when it comes to location information which can reveal personal information about people’s lives,” Healey said. “This unprecedented agreement holds Google accountable for these deceptive practices, requires more transparency, and ensures more consumer control over what information is used.”
As part of the settlement, Google also agreed to make those practices more transparent to users. That includes showing them more information when they turn location account settings on and off and keeping a webpage that gives users information about the data Google collects.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed the first state action against Google in May 2020, alleging that the company had defrauded its users by misleading them into believing they could keep their whereabouts private by turning off location tracking in the settings of their software.
Arizona settled its case with Google for $85 million last month, but by then attorneys general in several other states and the District of Columbia had also pounced on the company with their own lawsuits seeking to hold Google accountable for its alleged deception.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/n9CHeSy
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