Google to Pay $391.5M to Settle Location-Tracking Lawsuit

Google has agreed to pay $391.5 million to 40 states to settle a probe of how the company tracked users’ locations.

Key Quotes: "For years Google has prioritized profit over their users' privacy," Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said in a release. "They have been crafty and deceptive. Consumers thought they had turned off their location tracking features on Google, but the company continued to secretly record their movements and use that information for advertisers." Google Policy Communications Manager José Castañeda said, "Consistent with improvements we've made in recent years, we have settled this investigation which was based on outdated product policies that we changed years ago." 

For Context: The settlement is the largest-ever for a U.S. consumer privacy case brought by states. A 2018 Associated Press investigation that sparked the lawsuit showed that Google collected data from users even if they had turned off their location history. Google had said it informed users that location data would still be used to improve user experience even when location history was turned off. In the U.S. and around the world, the business practices of Google and other Big Tech companies are a growing focus of government lawsuits.

How the Media Covered it: The story was covered more prominently by left- and center-rated sources, but the coverage itself was similar across the political spectrum.