Google settles location privacy case with California for $93 million

Google’s controversial location-privacy practices have forced the tech giant to reach a hefty settlement with the state of California. The final settlement amount will be $93 million.

Google was accused of tracking its users’ location data even when they disabled the feature on their devices, triggering privacy and security concerns.

California Attorney General said accessing location data of non-consenting customers for commercial gain was unacceptable. Google previously denied any wrongdoing.

The settlement follows a $391.5 million settlement with 40 states, reached in November 2022, to resolve an investigation into how the company tracked users' locations.

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As part of the settlement, in which Google admitted no wrongdoing, the company also agreed to a number of restrictions, including providing more transparency about location tracking, disclosing to users that their location information may be used for ad personalisation, and showing additional information to users when enabling location-related account settings.

(With PTI inputs)