bad news for Google: the company will have to pay $85 million after reaching an agreement with the state of Arizona, due to the illegal tracking of Android phones, the state court ruled this week. It is just one of the state lawsuits filed against the company, as it still has others from Indiana, Texas and Washington DC.
It follows a lawsuit filed in May 2020 by the attorney general Mark Bronovich, with the allegation that Google violated the Consumer Fraud Act, after collecting location data from Android users.
Even though people turned off their location settings, the company kept tracking them.
I’m proud to announce our historic $85 million settlement against Google for deceptive and unfair practices used to obtain users’ location data. When I was elected attorney general, I promised Arizonans I would fight for them and hold everyone accountable. https://t.co/fHpN7j8BM5
— Mark Brnovich (@GeneralBrnovich) October 4, 2022
Google employees, according to those established in the lawsuit, were confused about their privacy controls, Admitting that they would need some tweaking so that when users deny tracking permission to the company, their decision is respected.
The $85 million settlement is the largest amount paid by Google for individual users, according to Brnovich’s office.
“I am proud of this historic agreement that demonstrates that no entity, not even large technology companies, is above the law,” he said. the prosecutor through a press release.
Google recognizes that its policies have improved compared to previous years
Google, which had asked the Arizona state court to dismiss the case, argued that the State Consumer Law requires that the alleged fraud must be linked to an advertisement or sale. The judge denied the company’s request.
Jose Castañeda, a Google spokesman, said the lawsuit in Arizona was related to older product policies, which have changed in recent years.
[ Google paga 250 mil dólares por error a un ingeniero: intentó devolverlos pero se lo rechazan ]
“We offer,” says Castañeda, “easy controls and automatic removal options for location data, and we are always working to minimize the data we collect.”
“We are pleased to have resolved this matter and will continue to focus our attention on providing useful products for our users,” the Google spokesperson added.