Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifies throughout a distant video listening to held by subcommittees of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee on “Social Media’s Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation” in Washington, March 25, 2021.
U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee | Handout | through Reuters
Google agreed to a $391.5 million settlement with 40 states over its use of location monitoring, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum introduced Monday.
Even when customers thought they’d turned off location monitoring of their account settings, Google continued to gather data concerning their whereabouts, Oregon’s AG workplace mentioned. The settlement requires Google to be extra clear with customers and supply clearer location monitoring disclosures starting in 2023.
Rosenblum led the settlement together with Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson. It’s the biggest client privateness settlement ever led by a gaggle of attorneys basic, in response to the discharge.
“Consistent with improvements we’ve made in recent years, we have settled this investigation which was based on outdated product policies that we changed years ago,” mentioned Google spokesperson José Castañeda in an announcement.
A 2018 report from the Associated Press revealed the premise of the investigation.
“For years Google has prioritized profit over their users’ privacy,” Rosenblum mentioned within the launch. “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.”
Google settled the same lawsuit with Arizona for $85 million final month, and the corporate faces further location monitoring lawsuits in Washington, D.C., Indiana, Texas and Washington state. The 4 AGs allege Google was utilizing the situation information for its advert enterprise. The lawsuits ask the courtroom to require Google to dump any algorithms created with the allegedly ill-gotten good points, alongside financial earnings.
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Source: www.cnbc.com”