Google agrees to a $391.5 settlement fee after investigations revealed it illegally tracked user location

Global internet giant, Google has been enmeshed in a legal battle after investigations revealed it illegally tracked users’ location data in 40 states in the US.

According to the Associated Press, the investigations started with a 2018 report which highlighted Google's insistence to track the location details of its millions of users without their consent

The AP report found out that Google continued to track users’ location data even after they disabled the tracking feature the company called “location history.”

According to the Connecticut Attorney General, William Tong “This $391.5 million settlement is a historic win for consumers in an era of increasing reliance on technology”

He also noted that one of the most sensitive and valuable personal information Google collects is location data and individuals who value their privacy should be respected as there are so many reasons why a consumer may close to opt-out of tracking.

The users affected by this investigation were about two billion users of devices that run Google’s Android operating software and hundreds of millions of iPhone users who turn to Google search and Google maps for driving directions.

Google had said the option of turning off a user's location history, especially in monitoring apps like Google maps would prevent the company from remembering where you’ve been.

A quick check at Google’s support page states: “You can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored.”

This has been revealed to be false because even with location history paused, time-stamped location data are still stored automatically even without asking.

While storing users’ data carries privacy risks, its advantage has been seen in instances where it has been used by law enforcement to determine the location of suspects.

Google’s spokesperson, Jose Castaneda however, confirmed it fixed the problems several years ago.

“Consistent with improvements we’ve made in recent years, we have settled this investigation, which was based on outdated product policies that we changed years ago,” he said in a statement.

The company also agreed that as part of the settlement, it would allow users to have more transparent information on how they handle the issue as it pertains to their location data.