Michigan’s attorney general’s office said Alphabet’s Google would pay $391.5 million to settle allegations from 40 states that the search and advertising giant was illegally tracking users’ locations.
The investigation and settlement, led by Oregon and Nebraska, is a sign of growing legal headaches for the tech giant from state attorneys general who has aggressively targeted user tracking practices enterprise users over the past few months.
In addition to the payment, Google must be more transparent with consumers about when location tracking is occurring and give users detailed information about location-tracking data on a special web page, the Iowa attorney general’s office said.
“When consumers decide not to share location data on their devices, they should be able to trust that a company will no longer track their every move,” Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said in a statement. “This settlement clarifies that companies must be transparent in tracking customers and abide by state and federal privacy laws.”
Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said: “In keeping with the improvements we’ve made over the past few years, we’ve resolved this investigation based on outdated product policies that we changed years ago. “
Google said in a blog post-Monday that it will “make updates in the coming months to provide even greater controls and transparency over location data.”
These changes include simplifying the removal of location data. New users will have automatic deletion controls that allow them to order Google to delete certain information when it reaches a certain age.
State prosecutors opened an investigation in 2018 following a report that Google recorded location data even when users asked it not to. The investigation found that Google had misled consumers about location-based practices since at least 2014, violating national consumer protection laws.
Arizona filed a similar lawsuit against Google and settled it for $85 million in October 2022.
Texas, Indiana, Washington State and the District of Columbia sued Google in January over what they said were deceptive location-based practices that invade users’ privacy.
Google made $111 billion in revenue from advertising in the first half of this year, more than any other online ad vendor. A consumer’s location is critical in helping an advertiser reduce digital clutter to make the ad more relevant and grab the consumer’s attention.