District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine, in one of his last steps before leaving office, announced that Google will pay $9.5 million to resolve allegations that it deceived and manipulated consumers to gain access to their location data, including making it nearly impossible for users to stop their location from being tracked.
Google has also agreed to several changes in the way the company informs users how user location data is collected, stored, and used by the company.
The District of Columbia, Texas, Indiana, and Washington State sued Google in January over its location-tracking practices.
In November, Google agreed to pay $391.5 million to 40 states that filed similar complaints.
Arizona settled with Google for $85 million in October 2022.
Under the terms of the settlement, in addition to paying a $9,500,000 penalty to the District, Google is required to instruct users who currently have certain location settings enabled on how to disable each setting, delete the data collected by the settings, and limit how long Google keeps their data.
“Given the vast level of tracking and surveillance that technology companies can embed into their widely used products, it is only fair that consumers be informed of how important user data, including information about their every move, is gathered, tracked, and utilized by these companies. Significantly, this resolution also provides users with the ability and choice to opt of being tracked, as well as restrict the manner in which user information may be shared with third parties,” said Racine.
The complaints from states began after a 2018 Associated Press story revealed that Google records user’s movements even when they explicitly tell it not to do so.
Racine said D.C.’s investigation confirmed other deceptive conduct, including a number of “Dark Pattern” practices, which are deliberate design choices that trick or coerce consumers into taking actions that don’t benefit them. Google’s dark patterns included repeatedly prompting users to enable location in certain apps and claiming products would not function properly if location was not enabled, when in fact location was not needed to even use the app.
Racine was elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. He announced last year he would not seek a third term. Brian L. Schwalb was sworn in as D.C.’s new attorney general on January 2.
Topics Google
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