Google Settles ‘Location History’ Lawsuit With 40 States for Almost $400 Million

Google gives away most of its services for free, but you’re still paying for them with your data. Some users thought they were limiting Google’s access to their location data, but no, Google’s settings were sufficiently confusing that a cadre of 40 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the search giant over it. That case has now been settled for almost $400 million, and Google will once again redesign its privacy controls.

The investigation into Google’s location tracking began in 2018 following an Associated Press report. The issue lies with a feature in Google Maps called “Location History,” which is just what it sounds like. It provides a timeline of your movements, allowing you to retrace your steps. Google had a prominent toggle in its account privacy settings to disable this feature, but the AP pointed out this did nothing about the location data Google was collecting for its own purposes. There was a different toggle buried in the “Web & App Activity” settings that actually controlled location tracking across the account.

Whether or not Google’s intention was to deceive, almost every state attorney general felt it warranted investigation. The outcome of that case is a new $391.5 million settlement with the states. While Pennsylvania AG Josh Shapiro says this is the largest multistate privacy settlement in US history, it isn’t very much money to Google. Ars Technica points out this is only about 12 hours of revenue for the company. Google recently settled a similar case with Arizona for an additional $85 million, and a few other individual states have pending cases.

Google won’t just be able to write a check and move on. It will also have to make changes to its account privacy settings. Yes, again. Google has redesigned these settings several times since the AP report that spawned the investigation. Under the terms of the deal, Google will add additional disclosures to the account “Activity Controls” and “Data and Privacy” pages. There will also be a new information hub to ensure users know the status of their location data. If you want to delete your location data from Google’s servers, there will be a new option to turn off collection and remove data in one step.

Location data is highly valuable in advertising, which is Google’s bread and butter. While this case closes one loophole, Google knows most people won’t poke around in their location settings. The settlement requires Google to tell new users about the privacy features in Web & App Activity, but is that going to change anyone’s behavior? Probably not.