United States of America: Settled lawsuit against Google over alleged deceptive location tracking practices by 5 State Attorneys General

On 20 March 2023, the Attorney General (AG) of New Hampshire announced that, as part of a group of 5 attorneys general lawsuits, it had reached a USD 9 million settlement with Google in a case concerning the misleading of consumers through location tracking practices. New Hampshire is expected to receive USD 1.8 million of the total settlement payment. The AG had alleged that Google violated the state consumer protection laws by misleading consumers in order to obtain their location data since 2014. In particular, Google created confusion among users regarding the settings "Location History" and "Web & App Activity" and the extent of user control over location tracking as a result of adjusting account and device settings. The terms of the settlement further require Google to provide additional details regarding location tracking and settings, as well as delete location information collected by web and app activity after 30 days.