The Michigan attorney general’s office announced Monday that Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O) will pay $391.5 million to settle claims made by 40 states that the search and advertising powerhouse improperly tracked users’ locations.
The probe and settlement, which were spearheaded by Oregon and Nebraska, show the tech giant is facing increasing legal difficulties from state attorneys general who have been actively attacking the company’s user monitoring methods recently.
In addition to making the settlement, Google was ordered by the Iowa attorney general’s office to provide users with comprehensive information about location-tracking data on a dedicated web page and be more upfront with customers about when location monitoring is taking place.
Tom Miller, the attorney general of Iowa, said in a statement: “Consumers should be able to trust that a corporation will no longer watch their every step when they decide not to disclose location data on their devices. “This settlement clearly establishes that businesses must adhere to state and federal privacy regulations and be transparent in how they track customers.”
According to advancements made recently, we have resolved this investigation, which was founded on out-of-date product policies that we revised years ago, said Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda.
In a blog post published on Monday, Google announced that it would “be updating in the coming months to enable even better controls and transparency over location data.”
The deletion of location data has been made simpler as part of these modifications. New users will gain access to auto-delete features that let them request that Google remove certain data when it reaches a specific age.
Following a claim that Google was recording location data even when users told it not to, the state attorneys launched an investigation. The investigation revealed that Google had been flouting state consumer protection rules on location-tracking activities since at least 2014.
Similar legal action was brought by Arizona against Google, and it was resolved for $85 million in October 2022.
In January, the states of Texas, Indiana, Washington, and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against Google for what they deemed to be dishonest location-tracking methods that violated consumers’ privacy.
More than any other provider of internet advertisements, Google generated $111 billion in revenue from advertising in the first half of this year. The location of a consumer is crucial for helping a marketer cut through the digital noise to make the advertisement more relevant and catch the consumer’s eye.
