Google sued over tracking user location data without consent

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[–]jamesK_3rd[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Google sued over tracking user location data without consent

BY ALEX SWOYER The Washington Times (ISSN 0732-8494) is published Monday through Friday. · May 29, 2020

THE WASHINGTON TIMES © 2020 by The Washington Times, LLC, 3600 New York Ave., N.E., Washington, D.C., 20002

Arizona is accusing Google of tracking users’ movements even after consumers disabled the location tracker.

The state sued Google in a 50-page complaint, saying the platform used deception and unfair business practices to obtain users’ location data to target them with ads.

After a roughly two-year probe, state officials say Google also makes it confusing and increasingly difficult for users to opt-out of the tracking and information collection.

“While Google users are led to believe they can opt-out of location tracking, the company exploits other avenues to invade personal privacy,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said when announcing the legal action this week.

A Google representative did not return a request for comment.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Maricopa County Superior Court says Google violated Arizona’s Consumer Fraud Act, which gives protection to consumers against fraudulent practices and sales.

“It’s nearly impossible to stop Google from tracking your movements without your knowledge or consent. This is contrary to the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act, and even the most innovative companies must operate within the law,” Mr. Brnovich said.

Collecting location information and using clickthrough ads, he said, pays off big time.

Google raked in $134.8 billion in advertising revenue in 2019, about 80% of its total revenue, according to the company’s annual report.

Collecting user data and tracking of location is often done without the user’s consent, the lawsuit charges.

Arizona began investigating the internet giant after the Associated Press published an article in August 2018 titled, “Google tracks your movements, like it or not.”

Google’s location history service is detailed in the article, which allows users to see where they have been. But the article said that despite users being told they can turn off the location history function, the information was still stored and used for ad sales.

The Arizona lawsuit seeks an injunction preventing Google from continuing its location-tracking practice.

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    [–]jamesK_3rd[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

    Yes but the EULA generically says if you opt out, they only collect "aggregated" non identifiable information (OS version, hardware processor, etc).

    My guess is people were opting out and they were collecting personally identifiable information anyway, and then selling it to advertising firms (which everyone knew they were doing).

    I agree with you generally, however i feel legislation such as this is the way forward and can start the ball of targeting Google as a monopoly. Google should be liable, at least until they and manufacturers release hardware so you can put FOSS vanilla android on it.

    This is at the OS level, then you have their apps, which they do the same thing. Ultimately, if Google continues hoard user data, they'll likely have to stop citizens of Arizona from using a certain app, or provide an exclusionary clause in it (e.g. even if you opt out we still will collect your data)