Google Agrees to Pay $155 Million to Resolve Location Tracking Dispute

In order to resolve allegations made by California and private plaintiffs regarding deceptive practices in tracking user locations and unauthorized use of their data, Google has agreed to a settlement of $155 million.

Both settlements resolve claims that the Alphabet Inc unit misled people into believing they controlled how Google collected and used their personal data.

The company was accused of being able to “profile” people and target them with advertising, even if they had turned off their Location History settings, and to cheat people about their ability to block ads they didn’t want.

“Google told its users one thing – that it would no longer track their location when they opted out – but did the opposite and continued to track their users’ movements for their own commercial gain,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. opinion. “It is unacceptable.”

The California settlement requires Google to pay $93 million and disclose more about how it tracks people’s whereabouts and uses the data it collects.

The money from Google’s $62 million settlement with private plaintiffs will go, after legal fees are deducted, to court-approved nonprofit groups that monitor Internet privacy issues.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said that made sense because it was “impossible” to distribute money to the roughly 247.7 million US adults who have mobile devices.

Some critics say this type of settlement, known as “cy pres,” offers little benefit to class members.

Google denied liability, and both settlements are subject to court approval.

Last November, Google agreed to pay $391.5 million to settle similar allegations by 40 US states.

The Mountain View, California-based company has also reached $124.9 million settlements with Arizona and Washington.

A Google spokesperson on Friday referred to a blog post discussing the multi-state settlement, saying it was related to “outdated product policies that we changed years ago.”

Attorneys for the private plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Google generated $110.9 billion in ad revenue in the first half of 2023, accounting for 81 percent of its total revenue of $137.7 billion.