Security News > 2021 > April > Watchdog thinks Google tricked Australians into giving up data, sues. Judge semi-agrees
Australian federal court sent a message to Big Tech about its willingness to act on privacy violations when it ruled today that Google had "Partially" misled consumers about collecting mobile phone personal location data.
For Google to not collect a device's location data, the user needed to let their wishes be known in both the "Location History" and the "Web & App Activity" setting segments.
The ACCC also wants Google to explain location data settings to Australians through a published notice.
"The court rejected many of the ACCC's broad claims. We disagree with the remaining findings and are currently reviewing our options, including a possible appeal. We provide robust controls for location data and are always looking to do more - for example we recently introduced auto delete options for Location History, making it even easier to control your data."
If you haven't yet stopped Google from collecting personally identifiable location data, you need to switch off the location setting in both your Google Account and the Web & App Activity setting.
Already collected personal data can be deleted by the user through their Google Account.