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A court found that Google misled some customers about personal location data collected through their Android mobile devices between January 2017 and December 2018.
Australia’s competition watchdog said on Friday that Alphabet Inc’s Google unit has been ordered by the country’s federal court to pay A$60 million ($42.7 million) in fines for misleading users in collecting their personal location data.
A court found that Google misled some customers about personal location data collected through their Android mobile devices between January 2017 and December 2018.
Google misled users into thinking that the “location history” setting on their Android phones was the only way it could collect location data, when the web and app activity tracking feature also allowed for local data collection and storage. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said.
The watchdog, which estimates 1.3 million Google Account users in Australia may have been affected, launched proceedings against the company and its local unit in October 2019.
Google took corrective action in 2018, the regulator said.
In an emailed statement, Google said it has resolved the issue, adding that location information is easy to navigate and easy to understand.
The search engine giant has been embroiled in legal action in Australia over the past year as the government considered and passed a law that would require Google and Facebook Meta Platforms to pay media companies for content on their platforms.
