Google Settles Investigation on Location Data Collection Practices

A coalition of 40 State Attorneys General ("coalition" or "AGs") obtained $391.5 million in a settlement with Google, LLC for misleading users about its policies for capturing and storing user location data.

The coalition alleged that Google misled users by representing that they could opt out of providing the company their location data by disabling location tracking settings under the "Location History" setting. The AGs' investigation found that Google continued to collect users' location information from multiple sources, including (i) other Google settings, like "Web & App Activity," which tracks the location and time a user interacts with a Google-partnered app, (ii) individual device location services (separate from Google-powered app tracking), (iii) Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scans and (iv) IP addresses and other public device-specific information.

The coalition asserted that (i) Google did not make clear to users that settings needed to be disabled individually by "hiding" the information behind pages that users would need to manually navigate to; (ii) prior to 2018, new users were not informed that web and app activity also tracked location information, as Google repeatedly described the related data as strictly related to browsing history; and (iii) Google continued to serve users with personalized ads even after users had disabled the personalized ads feature.

In addition to the monetary penalty, Google agreed to:

• implement a pop-up notification and email to users explaining how both location history and web and app activity collect user data and instructions for users to disable those features;

• maintain a readily available webpage disclosing its practices on data collection and storage, disabling/limiting Google's ability to track location data and detailing how to find more information about the status of an individual account; and

• present clear and inconspicuous disclosure on information pertaining to its use of location-related account information.