Google was fined $60 million by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for deceiving Australian Android users about the collection and utilization of their location data for over two years, between January 2017 and December 2018.
According to the Australian Competition watchdog, the tech giant continued to follow some of its customers' Android phones even after they deleted "Location History" in the device's settings.
While consumers were misled to believe that option would deactivate location tracking, another account setting, "Web & App Activity," which was enabled by default, allowed the firm to "collect, retain, and use personally identifiable location data."
According to the ACCC, based on available data, more than 1.3 million Australian Google accounts have been impacted.
"Google, one of the world's largest companies, was able to keep the location data collected through the 'Web & App Activity' setting and that retained data could be used by Google to target ads to some consumers, even if those consumers had the "Location History" setting turned off," stated ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb.
"Personal location data is sensitive and important to some consumers, and some of the users who saw the representations may have made different choices about the collection, storage and use of their location data if the misleading representations had not been made by Google."
In October 2019, Australia's competition watchdog initiated proceedings against Google. The Australian Federal Court ruled in April 2021 that Google had violated the Australian Consumer Law by deceiving customers regarding the gathering and use of their location data.
By 20 December 2018, Google has taken corrective action and resolved all faults that had led to this fine, with users no longer being shown deceptive information implying that halting location history will stop collecting information about the areas they go with their devices.
"Companies need to be transparent about the types of data that they are collecting and how the data is collected and may be used so that consumers can make informed decisions about who they share that data with," Cass-Gottlieb added.
