Google has agreed to pay a complete of $29.5 million to settle two completely different lawsuits introduced by Indiana and Washington, D.C., over its “misleading” location monitoring practices.
The search and promoting large is required to pay $9.5 million to D.C. and $20 million to Indiana after the states sued the corporate for costs that the corporate tracked customers’ places with out their categorical consent.
The settlement provides to the $391.5 million Google agreed to pay to 40 states over comparable allegations final month. The corporate remains to be dealing with two extra location-tracking lawsuits in Texas and Washington.
The lawsuits got here in response to revelations in 2018 that the web firm continued to trace customers’ whereabouts on Android and iOS by a setting referred to as Net & App Exercise regardless of turning Location Historical past choices off.
Google was additionally accused of using darkish patterns, which discuss with design decisions supposed to deceive customers into finishing up actions that violate their privateness and overshare info with out their information or affirmation.
“Google makes use of location knowledge collected from Indiana customers to construct detailed consumer profiles and goal adverts, however Google has deceived and misled customers about its practices since not less than 2014,” the state stated in a press release final week.
Pursuant to the settlement, the corporate has been ordered to inform customers with Location Historical past and Net & App Exercise enabled about whether or not location knowledge is being collected, alongside steps customers can take to disable the settings and delete the info.
Google can also be anticipated to keep up an internet web page that discloses all the kinds and sources of location knowledge it gathers in addition to chorus from sharing customers’ exact location info with third-party advertisers with out express consent.
What’s extra, it might want to robotically delete location knowledge derived from a “machine or from IP addresses in Net & App Exercise inside 30 days” of acquiring the knowledge.
The Mountain View-based firm, in November 2022, famous that the lawsuits are based mostly on “outdated product insurance policies” and that it has rolled out numerous privateness and transparency enhancements that permit customers to auto-delete location knowledge tied to their accounts.
Google additional said it would begin offering extra “detailed” info concerning the Net & App Exercise management, along with launching an info hub and a brand new toggle to show off each Location Historical past and Net & App Exercise settings and delete previous knowledge in “one easy circulation.”
“Given the huge stage of monitoring and surveillance that expertise corporations can embed into their broadly used merchandise, it is just honest that customers be told of how vital consumer knowledge, together with details about their each transfer, is gathered, tracked, and utilized by these corporations,” D.C. Lawyer Basic Karl A. Racine stated.
