Alphabet’s Google, the tech giant has agreed to pay $391.5 million to settle claims made by 40 US states that the company is improperly monitoring its users’ whereabouts.
The Michigan attorney general announced the news on Monday (November 14).
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The probe and settlement were headed by Oregon and Nebraska against the tech giant showing that the firm is rapidly increasing its customers’ monitoring practices.
Along with paying nearly $321 million dollars for settlement. The lowa attorney general has also asked the firm to be more transparent with users with comprehensive information about the location-tracking data on a safe and dedicated page and be more upfront with customers about when the tracking happens, Reuters reported.
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The attorney general said, “When consumers make the decision to not share location data on their devices, they should be able to trust that a company will no longer track their every move.”
A customer location is a marketer’s breakthrough for helping an advertiser to make more relevant ads appear and grabs consumers’ attention. The firms generated over $111 billion in the first half of this year through advertisement.
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Responding to the situation, the representative for the tech company Jose Castaneda said, “Consistent with improvements we’ve made in recent years, we have settled this investigation which was based on outdated product policies that we changed years ago.”
A similar case was filed by Arizona against Google which was resolved by the firm paying $85 million last month.
In January, Texas, Indiana, Washington and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against Google for its dishonest location-tracking methods.
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