Security News > 2023 > September > Google Agrees to $93 Million Settlement in California's Location-Privacy Lawsuit

Google has agreed to pay $93 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. state of California over allegations that the company's location-privacy practices misled consumers and violated consumer protection laws.

"Our investigation revealed that Google was telling its users one thing - that it would no longer track their location once they opted out - but doing the opposite and continuing to track its users' movements for its own commercial gain," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said.

The complaint filed by California alleged that Google collected location data through other sources and that it deceived users about their ability to opt out of personalized advertisements targeted to their location.

With Google making over $220 billion in revenue in 2022 from advertising alone, the development is the latest in a series of financial settlements made by the Mountain View-based company to resolve multiple lawsuits filed by different states in the U.S. Last November, it agreed to pay $391.5 million to settle similar complaints by 40 U.S. states.

Then in January 2023, it agreed to pay a total of $29.5 million to settle two different lawsuits brought by Indiana and Washington, D.C. Subsequently, in May 2023, the company settled with Washington state for $39.9 million for the same reasons.

It's currently facing a location tracking lawsuit in the state of Texas.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2023/09/google-agrees-to-93-million-settlement.html