Google sued for lying to customers to harvest their personal data
A group of state attorneys general filed lawsuits against Google on Monday, alleging that the company deceived its customers about its privacy settings in order to access their location data.
The complaints, led by Democratic Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine, in addition to attorneys general from Texas, Washington and Indiana, alleging that the company uses deceptive business practices to convince consumers that their location data is protected.
The attorneys general allege that Google falsely claims consumers can safeguard their privacy by adjusting certain account settings, such as by telling customers they “’can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored.’” The attorneys general allege that this claim is deceptive, as Google still collects and stores location data with “Location History” turned off.
“Google’s misleading, ambiguous, and incomplete descriptions of these settings all but guarantee that consumers will not understand when their location is collected and retained by Google or for what purposes,” Racine’s complaint reads. “And, in reality, regardless of the settings they select, consumers who use Google products have no option but to allow the Company to collect, store, and use their location.” – READ MORE
Responses