Google Fined $60M+ for Misleading Australians About Collecting Location Data

 

Google was fined $60 million by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for deceiving Australian Android users about the collection and utilization of their location data for over two years, between January 2017 and December 2018. 
According to the Australian Competition watchdog, the tech giant continued to follow some of its customers’ Android phones even after they deleted “Location History” in the device’s settings. While consumers were misled to believe that option would deactivate location tracking, another account setting, “Web & App Activity,” which was enabled by default, allowed the firm to “collect, retain, and use personally identifiable location data.” 
According to the ACCC, based on available data, more than 1.3 million Australian Google accounts have been impacted. 
“Google, one of the world’s largest companies, was able to keep the location data collected through the ‘Web & App Activity’ setting and that retained data could be used by Google to target ads to some consumers, even if those consumers had the “Location History” setting turned off,” stated ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb. 
“Personal location data is sensitive and important to some consumers, and some of the users who saw the representations may hav

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