Spying on users is something that must be expensive, and this is exactly what has happened with Google after discovering that its tracking practices based on the location of users, even when they refused to do so. For this reason, the US technology giant will have to assume the largest payment in the history of the North American country by a private entity after a lawsuit filed by several US states.
The investigation began in the wake of a 2018 Associated Press report revealing that the company with the big G continued to track the location of its users on Android and iOS , even when they turned off “location history” within the apps. options that we find in the account settings. Therefore, he ignored the privacy of people.
The million-dollar fine to Google
The United States technology giant had no choice but to accept payment of 391.5 million dollars (around 379 million euros) for illegally spying on the location of users . These location tracking practices related to account settings were condemned by up to 40 states in the North American country.
In addition, said agreement has been branded by prosecutors as the largest payment in the country’s history by a private entity, as we mentioned before. According to a statement from the Oregon Attorney General, Ellen Rosenblum, which we can find on her Twitter account , ” for years, Google has prioritized profit over the privacy of its users .”
The data you have collected
It must be taken into account, according to the different communications that have been published in the state prosecutors’ offices that filed specific lawsuits against the private company, that the location data collected by Google is combined with different personal and behavioral data that is they are collecting in order to develop detailed user profiles to target ads to those people. In addition, they point out that, only with a “limited amount of location data”, it is possible not only to know the identity of the person, but also the routines that they follow in their day to day.
Google has spoken about it, since they are going to have to introduce a series of tools in the coming months in order to be more transparent and help their users to correctly manage their data so that they can minimize the data they collect. from them. For this reason, in the coming months we will see the following changes:
- Renewal of user information centers.
- Simplified removal of location data.
- Account settings update.
Therefore, in addition to the penalty they have had to pay, to prevent the case from going to trial, the United States company has launched this initiative to include greater transparency about location data for the future.
