Three US states, DC sue Google for location tracking

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (Reuters) – Texas, Indiana, Washington State and the District of Columbia sued Alphabet Incs Google (GOOGL.O) on Monday for what they called misleading location tracking practices that invade users’ privacy.

“Google erroneously led consumers to believe that changing account and device settings would allow customers to protect privacy and control what personal data the company could access,”[ads1]; Washington, DC, State Attorney Karl Racine’s office said in a statement.

Nevertheless, “Google continues to systematically monitor customers and profit from customer data,” the statement said, calling the practice “a clear breach of consumer privacy.”

Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said “Attorneys are raising a case based on inaccurate claims and outdated claims about our settings. We have always built privacy features into our products and provided robust position data controls. We will defend ourselves and set the record straight.”

Texas Attorney Ken Paxton claimed that Google misled consumers by continuing to track their location even when users tried to prevent it.

Google has a “location history” setting and informs users if they turn it off “the places you go are no longer saved,” Texas said.

Google “continues to track users’ rankings through other settings and methods that it fails to adequately disclose,” Texas said.

Washington State Attorney Bob Ferguson said in 2020 that Google earned nearly $ 150 billion on advertising. “Placement data is the key to Google’s advertising. Consequently, they have a financial incentive to discourage users from withholding access to that data,” Ferguson’s office said in a statement Monday.

In May 2020, Arizona filed a similar lawsuit against Google for collecting user location data. That lawsuit is pending.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said “the fantastic claims in this cross-party case from four Advocates General show once again that technology companies continue to mislead, deceive and prioritize profits over protecting users’ privacy.”

He said “Congress must urgently address this moment in the privacy crisis by passing a comprehensive law that provides the privacy protection that Americans need and deserve.”

Reporting by David Shepardson and Doina Chiacu; additional reporting by Nate Raymond; Edited by Marguerita Choy and Lisa Shumaker

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