On Monday, top US justice officials in multiple lawsuits accused Google of tracking and profiting from its users’ location data, despite claiming that it could protect user privacy on the tech giant’s services.
The lawsuits seek to block Google’s alleged practice of building detailed profiles and selling highly targeted adverts with data collected from billions of its users, where location plays a key role.
The attorney general in Washington, Karl Racine commented,
Google falsely led consumers to believe that changing their account and device settings would allow customers to protect their privacy.
The lawsuits are the latest legal threat against Google and many other tech companies in the United States. These companies have long faced probes and court cases due to the lack of national laws that can regulate the business.
Attorney generals from Indiana, Washington, and Texas filed similar allegations against the tech giant.
Google, on the other hand, claims that the officials’ statements are inaccurate and based on outdated assertions of the company’s settings.
Google said,
We have always built privacy features into our products and provided robust controls for location data. We will vigorously defend ourselves and set the record straight.
Racine states that from 2014 to 2019, Google claimed that users could turn off their ‘Location History,’ stating “the places you go are no longer stored”. Racine further elaborated, “That is false. Even when Location History is off, Google continues to collect and store users’ locations.”
The officials further claim that Google made use of “dark patterns” or design tricks that influence a user’s choice in ways that benefit the company.
Racine explained that Google repeatedly prompted users to provide the location for certain applications, claiming products would not be able to function without it, even when it was unnecessary to grant access to the location to the apps.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita stated, “Even a limited amount of location data, aggregated over time, can expose a person’s identity and routines.” Rokita noted that the information could be used to work out “sensitive personal details” such as political or religious beliefs, income, health, or life events like births and divorces.
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