Google Pays $391 Million to Settle Privacy Lawsuit for Tricking Users Into Sharing Location Data

The logo for Google LLC at the Google Store Chelsea in New York City, on Nov.17, 2021. Andrew Kelly/Reuters

Google has agreed to pay more than $391 million to settle a bipartisan, multistate action that accuses the tech giant of deceiving users about how their location data are handled.

The settlement came about 10 months after state attorneys general from 40 states filed suits separately in each jurisdiction, alleging that Google, since at least 2014, has been falsely leading users to believe that changing their privacy settings could stop the company from tracking their location.

“Big Tech is watching us, but Silicon Valley needs to know that we are watching them too, and if they violate our consumer protection laws, we will take strong action to protect our citizens,” Ashley Moody, Florida’s attorney general who co-led the case, stated in a Nov. 14 press release.

“This is a historic case for the privacy of Americans and the protection of consumers nationwide, and I am proud our office helped lead this massive, nationwide investigation,” she said. Florida is set to receive $26 million from the settlement.

Google’s Stealth Surveillance

The attorneys’ investigation into Google was prompted by an Associated Press story in 2018, which revealed that Google “records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to.”

The AP story concerns two Google account settings: location history and web and app activity. Whereas location history passively collects location information on a user’s movements, web and app activity tracks and stores a signed-in user’s location information whenever the user interacts with Google products or services, such as Google Search and Google Maps. The bulk of Google’s profits is generated through advertising, and the company relies on users’ location data to determine which ads to target them with.

According to the article, location history is automatically “off” unless the user enables it, but web and app activity is “on” by default for new Google accounts. The two are independent settings, meaning that even if a user prevents location tracking by turning off one setting, Google could still track the user’s location through the other.

On top of that, Android smartphones typically ask users to sign in to a Google account. Mobile applications such as Google Search and Google Maps also grant location permission on Android devices by default. As a result, Google could track Android users’ location without ever presenting users with an option to opt-out.

In line with the Nov. 14 settlement, Google agreed to implement a number of changes to give consumers more transparency into its data-collecting practices.

Specifically, the company promises to show users additional information when whenever their account’s location settings are turned on or off; provide a new control that allows users to turn off their location history and web and app activity settings and delete their past data with a single process; and explain its privacy settings more explicitly to users setting up new accounts.

“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,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement.

Not too long ago, Google paid $85 million to settle a 2020 lawsuit with Arizona, in what Attorney General Mark Brnovich called one of the largest consumer fraud lawsuits in Arizona history. The state argued that Google engaged in “deceptive and unfair practices” toward users by tracking their location data even when the company was told not to.

“At some point, people or companies that have a lot of money think they can do whatever ... they want to do, and feel like they are above the law,” Brnovich told The Washington Post in 2020. “I wanted Google to get the message that Arizona has a state consumer fraud act. They may be the most innovative company in the world, but that doesn’t mean they’re above the law.”