Security News > 2023 > September > Google pays $93M to settle Android tracking lawsuit in California

California's Attorney General announced today that Google will pay $93 million to settle a privacy lawsuit alleging it violated the U.S. state's consumer protection laws.

An investigation by the California Department of Justice found that Google had engaged in deceptive practices related to collecting, retaining, and utilizing Android users' location data for purposes such as consumer profiling and advertising, all without obtaining their proper informed consent.

The complaint focuses on Google's tracking of users' locations, even when they believed they had disabled location tracking on their devices.

Last November, Google agreed to pay another $391.5 million to settle a privacy lawsuit filed by a coalition of attorneys general from 40 U.S. states focusing on the same privacy violations.

In August 2022, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission imposed a $60 million fine on Google for deceiving and collecting location data from Australian Android users over nearly two years.

France's National Commission on Informatics and Liberty also fined Google $170 million in January 2022 for infringing on internet users' consent rights, making it challenging to opt out of website tracking cookies hidden behind multiple clicks.

News URL

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-pays-93m-to-settle-android-tracking-lawsuit-in-california/