Google to pay California $93 million over location-tracking claims

Google has agreed to pay $93 million to the state of California to settle claims it tracked the situation of customers with out their information. Below the phrases of the proposed settlement, Google should additionally present extra details about the situation information it collects on customers.

The settlement follows a “multi-year” investigation by California’s Division of Justice, which discovered that Google deceived customers into considering they weren’t getting tracked once they really had been. In response to the criticism, Google continued to gather and retailer location information on customers even once they disabled the “Location Historical past” setting inside its apps and providers, permitting the corporate to make use of this info for focused promoting.

Google has since addressed the problems outlined within the criticism, with firm spokesperson José Castañeda telling The Verge the allegations are “primarily based on outdated product insurance policies we modified years in the past.” California now requires Google to reveal that the situation information they acquire on customers is likely to be used for advert personalization, present extra transparency about location monitoring, in addition to provide detailed details about the information it collects on its web site.

“Our investigation revealed that Google was telling its customers one factor — that it will now not monitor their location as soon as they opted out — however doing the reverse and persevering with to monitor its customers’ actions for its personal industrial acquire,” California Lawyer Normal Rob Bonta says in a press release.