Google Slapped with $450 Million Fine for Secretly Tracking User Location
Google has been fined $450 million for quietly collecting and using user location data, even when users had turned off Location History. The Irish Data Protection Commission's (DPC) six-year investigation found that Google's practices between May 2018 and February 2020 violated European privacy law.
The DPC concluded that Google's location tracking could reveal far more than just a user's location, including their interests, habits, movements, and other personal details. The regulator found that turning off Location History did not necessarily stop Google from collecting all location-related information.
Google had told users they could stop Location History tracking by disabling the setting, but researchers at Princeton University confirmed that Google could continue storing certain location data even after users had turned it off. Disabling Location History did not automatically disable Web & App Activity, which could also collect location information.