Google Washington will pay the state $39.9 million (about Rs 330 crore) to settle a lawsuit alleging Alphabet entity misled consumers about its location tracking practices, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Thursday.
The settlement resolves claims that Google deceived people into believing that they controlled how the search and advertising company collected and used their personal data.
In fact, the state said Google was able to collect and profit from that data even after consumers disabled its tracking technology on their smartphones and computers, invading consumers’ privacy.
A consent decree filed Wednesday in King County Superior Court requires Google to be more transparent about its tracking practices, and provide a more detailed “Location Technologies” webpage describing them.
“Today’s resolution holds one of the most powerful corporations accountable for its unethical and illegal tactics,” Ferguson said in a statement.
Google, based in Mountain View, California, denied wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement.
In November, Google agreed to pay $391.5 million (roughly Rs. 3,240 crores) to resolve similar allegations by 40 US states.
Some states, including Washington, chose to sue Google themselves regarding its tracking practices. Arizona reached an $85 million (roughly Rs. 703 crore) settlement with Google last October in one of those cases.
In response to the Washington agreement, Google referred to its earlier statement on the multistate agreement, where it said it had addressed various concerns raised by regulators, including “outdated product policies that we changed years ago.”
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