Australia: Court Fines Google $43 Million for Misleading Users on Personal Location Data

An Australian Court has ordered Google to be fined AUD $60 million (approximately USD $43 million) over the way the Silicon Valley giant collected personal location data.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), a consumer watchdog, filed a lawsuit against Google in 2019, alleging that the company, from January 2017 to December 2018, misled Android phone users that the “Location History” setting was the only way Google collected personally identifiable information on their location data.

However, a previous court ruling found Google to be breaching Australian Consumer Law as it was collecting personally identifiable location data through the “Web & App Activity” when it was turned on, which it was by default.

The ACCC estimates that 1.3 million users may have viewed the misleading settings page on their personal location data.

The court also ordered the Alphabet Inc. subsidiary to comply with Australian Consumer Law while ensuring its staff is well-versed in it.

Gina Cass-Gottlieb, chair of the ACC, released a statement following the court ruling:

This significant penalty imposed by the Court today sends a strong message to digital platforms and other businesses, large and small, that they must not mislead consumers about how their data is being collected and used.

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Personal location data is sensitive and important to some consumers, and some of the users who saw the representations may have made different choices about the collection, storage and use of their location data if the misleading representations had not been made by Google.

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Companies need to be transparent about the types of data that they are collecting and how the data is collected and may be used, so that consumers can make informed decisions about who they share that data with.

Both the ACCC and Google agreed on the financial penalty. The big tech company was also ordered to pay the consumer watchdog part of the penalty.

Google issued a statement regarding the ruling, per the Australian news company ABC News.

“We’ve invested heavily in making location information simple to manage and easy to understand with industry-first tools like auto-delete controls, while significantly minimising the amount of data stored,” a Google spokesperson said.

“As we’ve demonstrated, we’re committed to making ongoing updates that give users control and transparency, while providing the most helpful products possible,” Google added.

The Silicon Valley giant claims it fixed the location privacy issue in 2018.

As Breitbart News previously reported, Google is also facing lawsuit challenges in Texas, Indiana, Washington, and Washington D.C., over the company’s “deceptive” location tracking.

You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.