Google is being sued by the ACCC for exploiting users’ data: Here is why that matters

Google is being sued for misleading consumers and using their personal location data. The ACCC follows regulators in countries including the US and Germany in taking action against the way “tech giants” such as Google and Facebook harvest and exploit their users’ data. ACCC Chair Rod Sims said Google “collected, kept and used highly sensitive and valuable personal information about consumers’ location without them making an informed choice”. The ACCC alleges that Google breached the Australian Consumer Law by misleading its users in the course of 2017 and 2018, including by: not properly disclosing that two different settings needed to be switched off if consumers did not want Google to collect, keep and use their location data not disclosing on those pages that personal location data could be used for a number of purposes unrelated to the consumer’s use of Google services. Location data is used for much more than Google Maps Google collects and uses consumers’ personal location data for purposes other than providing Google services to consumers.