Google to pay $29.5 million to settle DC, Indiana lawsuits over location tracking

Google has agreed to pay a complete of $29.5 million to settle separate lawsuits with Washington, D.C., and Indiana over its location monitoring practices. 

Underneath the settlements, Google agreed to not make misrepresentations to customers about a person person’s location data in location historical past and internet and app exercise.

Indiana Legal professional Normal Todd Rokita (R) mentioned in an announcement that the state reached a settlement with Google for $20 million to resolve its lawsuit over the corporate’s “misleading location-tracking practices.”

“This settlement is one other manifestation of our steadfast dedication to guard Hoosiers from Large Tech’s intrusive schemes,” Rokita mentioned. “We’ll proceed holding these firms accountable for his or her improper manipulation of shoppers.” 

A number of states launched lawsuits in opposition to Google following an Related Press story in 2018 revealing the extent of Google’s location monitoring. 

Rokita famous that his workplace filed its lawsuit after negotiations between Google and a coalition of state attorneys normal stalled. In November, Google agreed to pay a virtually $392 million settlement to 40 states to resolve the lawsuit introduced by that coalition.

Rokita mentioned Google used location information collected from Indiana shoppers to construct detailed person profiles and goal advertisements however has misled customers about its practices since no less than 2014. 

The settlement states that the settlement doesn’t represent an admission of wrongdoing on the a part of Google. 

D.C. Legal professional Normal Karl Racine tweeted on Friday that his workplace reached a settlement with Google for $9.5 million. He mentioned Google manipulated prospects by means of utilizing “darkish patterns” to trick them and achieve entry to their location information. 

He mentioned his workplace sued Google initially as a result of the corporate made it “almost inconceivable” for customers to stop their location from being tracked. He mentioned Google will probably be required to clarify to its prospects how their location information is collected, saved and used. 

Underneath the settlements, Google agreed to take a wide range of steps, together with issuing a pop-up notification to customers with location historical past enabled telling them whether or not location data is being collected and sustaining a webpage that discloses Google’s location monitoring practices and insurance policies. 

A Google spokesperson pointed to a weblog submit the corporate posted in November associated to settlements over its location monitoring when reached for remark.

The submit states that Google has launched better transparency and extra instruments to permit customers to handle their information and decrease the information the corporate collects.

It mentioned Google launched auto-delete controls to permit customers to delete their information on a rolling foundation, which it mentioned is a primary within the trade. The corporate additionally developed “Incognito mode” on Google Maps and launched transparency instruments to let customers entry key location settings from their merchandise, per the submit.

The submit moreover notes Google settling the lawsuit from 40 state attorneys normal, which it mentioned was based mostly on outdated insurance policies that had been modified years in the past.

“These are just a few ways in which now we have labored to offer extra selection and transparency,” the corporate mentioned.

Google additionally mentioned it could present further updates within the coming months, together with simplified deletion of location information, revamped data hubs and a extra detailed rationalization for customers when establishing their accounts.

Up to date at 11:43 a.m.