by Madeleine Hubbard
Google agreed to a $391.5 million settlement with 40 states after an investigation found that the tech giant participated in questionable location-tracking practices, state attorneys general announced Monday.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong called it a “historic win for consumers.”
“Our investigation found that Google continued to collect this personal information even after consumers told them not to,” Tong said. “That is an unacceptable invasion of consumer privacy, and a violation of state law.”
The settlement comes after The Associated Press reported in 2018 that Google continued to store location data even if users had a privacy setting to prevent the company from doing so.
The settlement negotiations were led by Oregon and Nebraska attorneys general, with the help of Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
Other state attorneys general involved in the lawsuit include Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
– – –
Madeleine Hubbard joined Just the News as a fast file reporter after working as an editor at Breitbart News. Hubbard previously served as the special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo “Google” by Greg Bulla.
