United States of America: Issued ruling in lawsuit against Google for tracking location data without users’ consent

On 18 May 2023, the Attorney General of Washington announced that a legally binding consent decree was filed in the lawsuit against Google for its tracking location practices. The Attorney General claimed that Google collected, stored and used the users' location data without their knowledge or consent, or even against their intent, thus violating the Washington State Consumer Protection Act. The users were deceived regarding their ability to protect their privacy through a variety of practices (i.e. hard-to-find location settings, misleading descriptions of location settings, nudging to enable location settings, incomplete disclosures of collected data). In particular, the practices are pursued through the “Web & App Activity” setting, Android devices' settings and the repeated nudging in many Google products, such as Google Maps, Google Now and Google Assistant. In the consent decree, Google agreed to pay a fine of UDS 39.9 million. In addition, several transparency obligations are imposed on Google, including a commitment to not make misrepresentations to users regarding their location information. Further, Google is required to provide specific information to users whenever they enable a location-related account setting by describing the sources, purposes and retention of relevant location data; ensure users see information about location tracking; and give users detailed information at an enhanced “Location Technologies” webpage about the types of location data Google collects and how it will use that data.