Attorney General accuses Google of collecting data even after location history was turned off

Attorney claimed that Google falsely promised users not to broadcast location specific advertisements

Google has claimed that lapses were due to outdated product policies

A lawsuit filed by California based attorney general, Rob Banta has levied a charge of 93 million dollars or in other words, an amount exceeding Rs 772 crore, due to violation of user’s privacy under the California consumer protection act. 

According to Rob Banta, Google allegedly “ falsely told users that if they turned off the “Location History” setting, it would not store their location data. However, even when a user turned Location History off, Google continued to collect and store that user’s location data through other sources.” It is also alleged that Google misled users about their choice to not receive advertisements specific to their location. 

“Our investigation revealed that Google was telling its users one thing, that it would no longer track their location once they opted out, but doing the opposite and continuing to track its users’ movements for its own commercial gain. That’s unacceptable, and we’re holding Google accountable with today’s settlement. I want to thank my Consumer Protection Section for their work on this matter and for securing important privacy safeguards on behalf of all Californians,” Rob Banta stated. 

“Consistent with improvements we’ve made in recent years, we have settled this matter, which was based on outdated product policies that we changed years ago,” the spokesperson of Google said to The Guardian.