Google has reached an agreement with 40 U.S. states for its questionable location tracking practices. Valued at $391.5 million, the consumer privacy settlement is the largest multistate settlement of its kind in the U.S.
On Monday, attorneys generals Ellen Rosenblum (Oregon), William Tong (Connecticut), Ellen Rosenblum (Nebraska), and others announced a $391.5 million settlement between Google and 40 U.S. state governments, which is being divided according to the scale of violations in each state.
An August 2018 Associated Press report blew the lid open on Google’s location tracking practices, alleging the search giant tracks users based on their phone location to serve ads, despite users explicitly opting out of it. Google was alleged to have been collecting user location through Web & App Activity (which is on by default) even when the Location History setting was turned off. The report assessed that approximately two billion Google users were impacted.
An investigation into the allegations confirmed that “Google violated state consumer protection laws by misleading consumers about its location-tracking practices since at least 2014. Specifically, Google confused its users about the extent to which they could limit Google’s location tracking by adjusting their account and device settings,†Oregon DoJ’s press release states.
“For years Google has prioritized profit over their users’ privacy,†said attorney general Rosenblum. “They have been crafty and deceptive. Consumers thought they had turned off their location tracking features on Google, but the company continued to secretly record their movements and use that information for advertisers.â€
Google’s ad revenue between 2014 and 2018 stood at 418.43 billionOpens a new window , almost halfOpens a new window of which were generated in the U.S. However, the settlement agreed with each state may not necessarily indicate the revenue earned from that particular state but the breadth of its violation, or both.
Oregon and Nebraska, which also led the investigation, are slated to receive $14.8 million and $11.9 million, respectively. Meanwhile, Florida and New York are set to receive $26 million and $20 million, respectively, the highest among all states, of the $391.5 million settlement. The state-wise list of Google’s $391.5 million settlement for location tracking is given below (sorted by amount).
|
State |
Amount | State | Amount | State |
Amount |
|
Florida |
$26 million | Nebraska | $11.9 million | Iowa | $6.17 million |
| New York | $20 million | Arkansas | $11.36 million | Nevada |
$6.067 million |
|
Pennsylvania |
$19.67 million | Massachusetts | $9.3 million | Mississippi | $6.026 million |
| Illinois | $19.5 million | Maryland | $8.6 million | Utah |
$6 million |
|
New Jersey |
$17.79 million | Wisconsin | $8.4 million | Kansas | $5.9 million |
| North Carolina | $17.62 million | Minnesota | $8.25 million | New Mexico |
$5.27 million |
|
Oregon |
$14.8 million | Colorado | $8 million | Idaho | $4.9 million |
| Tennessee | $14.56 million | South Carolina | $7.81 million | Hawaii |
$4.7 million |
|
Ohio |
$13.4 million | Alabama | $7.6 million | Delaware | $4.3 million |
| Louisiana | $12.77 million | Kentucky | $7.28 million | Vermont |
$4 million |
|
Georgia |
$12.4 million | Oklahoma | $6.84 million | ||
| Michigan | $12 million | Connecticut | $6.5 million |
Spiceworks News & Insights was unable to get the precise settlement figures for Maine, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Missouri, and Virginia.
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“This high-profile settlement offers yet more proof that if we want real innovation without retribution in every field–think sustainability, healthcare, open banking, public services–we need to equip technologists with some new tools and approaches,†Chris McLellan, director of operations at Data Collaboration Alliance, told Spiceworks.
“Large fines like this set the bar very low and create a cat-and-mouse game where the consumer is always the loser. We’ve seen to date that large fines haven’t changed anything. And these companies can afford to absorb fines as a cost of doing business.â€
For perspective, Google earned $69.092 billion in Q3 2022Opens a new window . Its full-year revenue for 2021 stands at $257.63 billionOpens a new window .
“There’s no question that flagrant violations of data protection regulations deserve to be punished, but there’s a larger question here that also merits attention: Does any organization anywhere–even multinational conglomerates with virtually unlimited resources–truly have the ability to control sensitive and personal data in its possession?†McLellan asks.
“The answer is no, and that’s in part because of the way today’s apps and systems fragment information into databases, data warehouses, and even spreadsheets. These practices inevitably lead to unrestricted copying of data for the purposes of data integration.â€
McLellan goes on to advocate the adoption of dataware, blockchain for application development, as well as access control mechanisms such as Zero-Copy Integration propounded by the Data Collaboration Alliance.
“Fines aren’t the answer. We need to look towards encouraging the use of new technologies, standards, and methodologies that help address the root causes of data chaos in the first place – silos and copies. How data rights and data ownership evolve will determine the winners and losers in our future economy. We are now witnessing a fight to own the future by owning data.â€
Besides monetary obligations, Google is also required to make certain improvements in how it notifies users who are tracked for targeted advertising. Google would need to show additional information to users who turn on location services, what data it collects, specify why it is collecting data, and more.
In a blog postOpens a new window , Google said it would create an information hub for all relevant details, allow users to delete past collected data and provide controls to easily turn off Location History and Web & App Activity settings.
However, Google’s response lacks any of the measures suggested by McLellan.
Google’s $391.5 million settlement with the 40 states comes on the heels of an $85 million settlement with Arizona for a privacy-related lawsuit. The company is also fighting lawsuits from Texas, Indiana, and Washington and Washington, D.C.
Its privacy woes do not end there. The search and advertising giant was recently fined â‚©69.2 billion (~$49.68 million) by South Korea’s privacy watchdog Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC).
Meanwhile, French privacy regulator CNIL fined Google €150 million (~$169.7 million divided among Google USA and Google Ireland) and, in February 2022, ruled that Google Analytics breaches GDPR.Â
The U.S. is yet to enforce GDPR-esque federal privacy laws even as some states proceed to enact stringent state-level privacy laws.
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