Security News > 2022 > August > Google fined $60 million over Android location data collection
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced that Google was fined $60 million for misleading Australian Android users regarding the collection and use of their location data for almost two years, between January 2017 and December 2018.
"Google, one of the world's largest companies, was able to keep the location data collected through the 'Web & App Activity' setting and that retained data could be used by Google to target ads to some consumers, even if those consumers had the"Location History" setting turned off," said ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb.
"Personal location data is sensitive and important to some consumers, and some of the users who saw the representations may have made different choices about the collection, storage and use of their location data if the misleading representations had not been made by Google."
In April 2021, the Australian Federal Court found that the search giant had breached the Australian Consumer Law by misleading customers about the collection and use of their location data.
"Companies need to be transparent about the types of data that they are collecting and how the data is collected and may be used so that consumers can make informed decisions about who they share that data with," Cass-Gottlieb added.
Previously, Google was also fined $11.3 million for aggressive data collection, €220 million for favoring its services to the disadvantage of competitors, $1.7 billion for anti-competitive practices in online advertising, and $2.72 billion for abusing its dominant market position to tweak search results.