COLUMBUS – Google has agreed to a $391.5 million settlement with Ohio and 39 other states to resolve an investigation into how the company tracked users’ locations.
The company uses personal and behavioral data it collects to build detailed user profiles and to target ads but the investigation by the states found Google services on Android and iPhone mobile devices stored location data even if users asked Google not to.
“Using someone’s phone to track them against their wishes is just plain creepy – and the behavior is no better from a giant corporation. This settlement will put an end to Google’s stalking for profit” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said.
The investigation was spurred by a 2018 Associated Press story, which found that Google continued to track people’s location data even after they opted out of such tracking by disabling a feature the company called “location history.”
The states’ investigation revealed that location tracking wasn’t truly disabled unless a user also turned off Web & App Activity, a lesser-known setting that also tracks location and defaulted to “on,” Yost said.
The attorneys general called the settlement a historic win for consumers, and the largest multistate settlement in U.S history dealing with privacy.
It comes at a time of mounting unease over privacy and surveillance by tech companies that has drawn growing outrage from politicians and scrutiny from regulators. The Supreme Court’s ruling in June ending the constitutional protections for abortion raised potential privacy concerns for women seeking the procedure or related information online.
The attorneys general said Google misled users about its location tracking practices since at least 2014, violating state consumer protection laws.
As part of the settlement, Google also agreed to make those practices more transparent to users. That includes showing them more information when they turn location account settings on and off, making key information about location tracking easier to find and keeping a webpage that gives users information about the data Google collects.
The settlement also limits Google’s use and storage of certain types of location information and requires Google account controls to be more user-friendly, Yost said.
Separate from this settlement, Yost filed a lawsuit in June 2021 suggesting that the search engine should be subject to common carrier laws.