Google has settled an ongoing investigation into tracking users' locations in 40 US states by paying more than $390 million. These US states started an investigation in 2018 after a report on the Associated Press. In this news, it was revealed that even if the users using Google turn off or disable the feature location history, even then, Google continues to obtain data related to the location of users. Attorneys general of all US states are hailing the settlement as a win for consumers. It was the largest privacy case in US history involving multiple states. The settlement comes at a time when politicians have expressed outrage over increased surveillance of privacy and technology companies, and regulators of such firms are also under scrutiny. In June of this year, the US Supreme Court ended the constitutional protection of the right to abortion. Since then, privacy concerns have also increased among women seeking abortion information online.
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Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a statement that the $39.15 million settlement is a historic victory for consumers. He said that location data is the most sensitive and valuable data that Google collects. Users may have a number of reasons for opting out of this tracking. Google says that it solved this problem several years ago, in which location information was obtained by Google even after the tracking feature was turned off. "With continuous improvement, we have settled investigations that were initiated into an outdated policy that we changed years ago," company spokesman Jose Ka Satind said in a statement. With location tracking, companies show ads to consumers based on the locations they visit. It's a key feature of the consumer data collection system, which earns Google's parent company Alphabet $200 billion a year in advertising revenue. The market value of this company has reached 12 trillion dollars. In 2018, AP revealed in its report that even if users of Android devices and iPhones turn off Google's location tracking feature by going to their settings. So Google still collects their location data. Princeton computer science researchers confirmed this at the AP's request. The AP reported that Google's feature affected the privacy of nearly 100,000 users. Among them were millions of iPhone users, who use Google for map searches. Officials investigating the matter said location data is a key part of the company's digital advertising business. According to officials, location information is the most sensitive of the data the company collects from customers.
According to officials, location information is the most sensitive of the data the company collects from customers. According to officials, even the slightest location information can be enough to identify a person and learn about their daily routine. Google also uses location data to deliver advertisements to its customers to relevant users. State Attorney Munir said Google had been misleading consumers about its location tracking since 2014, which was in clear violation of state-level consumer protection laws. Google has also promised to make its practices more transparent in the recent settlement. This includes providing additional information whenever a user closes or opens a location, and a web page detailing all the information Google is collecting on users.