Google will pay Arizona $85 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the tech giant of resorting to deceptive practices to collect users’ location information from their smartphones.
“The settlement represents the largest amount per capita the internet giant has paid in a privacy and consumer-fraud lawsuit of this kind,” says Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich.
The settlement revolves around how Google can collect your phone’s location to power company services and for ad purposes. The company had been telling consumers they could opt out of location tracking by reconfiguring their privacy settings. But in 2018, an investigation from the Associated Press found that Google can continue to capture the location data, even if the user hits pause on the tracking.
The company was collecting minute-by-minute location data through apps such as Google Maps, weather updates, and Google searches for both Android devices and iPhones. The AP’s report prompted Brnovich to launch his own investigation. In 2020, he then filed a lawsuit that accused Google of violating the state’s Consumer Fraud Act to collect users’ location data.
“Arizona's investigation has also revealed that Google uses deceptive and unfair practices to collect as much user information as possible and makes it exceedingly difficult for users to understand what’s being done with their data, let alone opt-out,” Brnovich’s office said at the time, citing testimony from Google employees and internal documents from the company.
In response to the settlement, Google tells PCMag: “This case is based on outdated product policies that we changed years ago. We provide straightforward controls and auto delete options for location data, and are always working to minimize the data we collect,” the tech giant adds. “We are pleased to have this matter resolved and will continue to focus our attention on providing useful products for our users.”
According to the settlement, $77.2 million of the funds will go to Arizona's general fund, where it’ll be directed “toward education, broadband, and internet privacy efforts and purposes.” The remaining $7.7 million will be used for education programs to train attorney general staffers.
Google does not admit any guilt in agreeing to the settlement, but the company is facing similar lawsuits in Washington state, Indiana, Texas, and Washington, D.C., about the same location-tracking practice.