Google Fines Millions of Dollars for Stealing Location Data and Misleading Consumers

Google was ordered to pay a penalty of 58.4 million US dollars by the Federal Court of Australia for the collection of personal location data.

Last April, a federal court found that Google violated consumer laws by misleading some local users. The company has convinced users that it does not collect personal data about their location through mobile devices powered by the Android operating system. Users, on the other hand, accepted the Google location data action as 'stealing' location information.

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Google's Use of Misleading Statements Has Been Against

The case concerned whether Google continued to collect location data even when a user's location history was set to 'off'. On top of this, it was added that the company showed misleading behavior to the public. In addition, misleading statements about the performance characteristics of a service were against Google.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Council said in a statement that the court found that Google misled some customers about personal location data collected via Android mobile devices between January 2017 and December 2018.

According to the news AA quoted from Asia One, it is estimated that 1.3 million Google users in Australia may have been affected. The Council filed a lawsuit against Google and the company's local unit in October 2019.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it was sending a message to digital platforms at the time requiring consumers to be open about the use of their data. Today, an agreement was reached between the parties in the court. The parties stated that a penalty of $58.4 million was accepted as 'fair and reasonable'. However, it turned out that Google took remedial measures.