Explained | Why Google’s location tracking settlement made history

On November 14, Google has agreed with the attorneys general of 40 U.S. states to pay a historic $391.5 million settlement, over its location tracking practices, Associated Press reported. The states’ investigation was triggered by an Associated Press story in 2018, which found that Google continued to track people’s location data even after they turned off location tracking by disabling a feature called “location history.” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed the first state action against Google in May 2020 when he slammed the company for misleading the users. Google must show additional information to users whenever they turn a location-related account setting “on” or “off.” The company is not allowed to hide any key information about location tracking for users and it must give them details about the types of location data it collects and how it is used, at an enhanced “Location Technologies” webpage. “We will be making updates in the coming months to provide even greater controls and transparency over location data,” Google said in a blog post on Monday.