3 U.S. States And D.C. Sue Google For Location Data Tracking

Alphabet Inc. will have another distraction in its hands with its subsidiary Google enmeshed in a new legal fisticuff as three U.S. states and D.C has slammed a lawsuit against it.

The U.S states, Washington, Texas, Indiana and the District of Columbia in the lawsuit accused Google of engaging in “deceptive” location-tracking misconduct, embarking into users’ privacy. 

The office of Attorney General of Washington D.C., Karl Racine’s in a statement said: 

“Google falsely led customers to believe that changing their account and device settings would allow customers to protect their privacy and control what personal data the company could access.”

The statement added that Google “continues to systematically surveil customers and profit from customer data,” with the Racine addressing Google’s demeanour as “a clear violation of consumers’ privacy.”  

Google not to be caught off guard as fired back as one of its spokesperson, Jose Castaneda posited that the attorney generals’ case is not based on accurate allegations, noting that their information is outdated when it comes to the company’s tracking settings.  

“We have always built privacy features into our products and provided robust controls for location data. We will vigorously defend ourselves and set the record straight,” Castaneda expressed.

On his part, the Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton in his submission accused the search engine of intentionally distorting its users by continuing with its consumer location tracking activity, even with users turning it off in their account’s settings. He highlighted further that Google has a “Location History” setting and notifies users who choose to restrict it that the “places that you go are no longer stored.” 

According to the Texas law officer, Google had maintained the tracking activities of its users’ location by using diversified tactics, which it intentionally refrained from disclosing. 

Washington’s Attorney General, Bob Ferguson in his submission revealed that Google in 2020 had an estimated $150 from advertising alone, mainly steered by the gathered users’ location data.  

“Location data is key to Google’s advertising business. Consequently, it has a financial incentive to dissuade users from withholding access to that data,” D.C.’s Attorney General’s office said in a statement. 

The lawsuit which is subject to approval had Democratic Senator, Richard Blumenthal reacting to it when he said: “the stunning allegations in this bipartisan suit by four attorneys general show, yet again, that tech companies continue to mislead, deceive, and prioritize profits over protecting user privacy.” 

“Congress must urgently meet this moment in the privacy crisis by passing a comprehensive law that provides the privacy protections that Americans need and deserve,” Blumenthal added.