Hawaii and 39 other states have agreed to a $391.5 million settlement with search giant Google to resolve an investigation into how the company tracked users’ locations, state attorneys general announced Monday.
The $4,705,227 that Hawaii will receive from the agreement is part of the largest multistate privacy settlement in U.S. history.
“This historic settlement holds Google accountable for misleading consumers into a false sense of security regarding its privacy settings,” Stephen Levins, executive director of the state Office of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. “Instead of respecting the explicit wishes of consumers regarding their privacy settings it took advantage of the trust that they had placed in it for its own financial gain.”
The states’ investigation was sparked by a 2018 Associated Press story that found that Google continued to track people’s location data even after people opted out of such tracking by disabling a feature the company called “location history.”
Location data is a key part of Google’s digital advertising business. Google uses the personal and behavioral data it collects to build detailed user profiles and target ads on behalf of its advertising customers. Even a limited amount of location data can expose a person’s identity and routines, and can be used to infer personal details.
Google’s data-gathering toolkit generates more than $200 billion in annual ad revenue for the company, accounting for most of the profits pouring into the coffers of its corporate parent, Alphabet, which has a market value of $1.2 trillion.
The settlement comes at a time of mounting unease over privacy and surveillance by tech companies that has drawn growing outrage from politicians and scrutiny from regulators. The Supreme Court’s ruling in June ending the constitutional protections for abortion raised potential privacy concerns for women seeking the procedure or related information online.
“This $391.5 million settlement is a historic win for consumers in an era of increasing reliance on technology,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a statement. “Location data is among the most sensitive and valuable personal information Google collects, and there are so many reasons why a consumer may opt-out of tracking.”
At a news conference, Tong urged consumers to “do a little personal inventory” of their online settings and turn them off if they don’t want them.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in a surveillance economy,” he said. “Understand that you’re being tracked every minute of every day where you are.”
Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., said it fixed the problems several years ago.
“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,” company spokesperson Jose Castaneda said.
The settlement requires Google to be more transparent with consumers about its practices. Google must:
>> Show additional information to users whenever they turn a location-related account setting “on” or “off.”
>> Make key information about location tracking unavoidable for users (i.e., not hidden).
>> Give users detailed information about the types of location data Google collects and how it’s used at an enhanced “Location Technologies” web page.
The settlement also limits Google’s use and storage of certain types of location information and requires Google account controls to be more user-friendly.
