Google Will Pay $9.5 Million To Settle Washington DC AG's Location-Tracking Lawsuit (engadget.com) 9
Google has agreed to pay $9.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Washington DC Attorney General Karl Racine, who accused the company earlier this year of "deceiving users and invading their privacy." From a report: Google has also agreed to change some of its practices, primarily concerning how it informs users about collecting, storing and using their location data. "Google leads consumers to believe that consumers are in control of whether Google collects and retains information about their location and how that information is used," the complaint, which Racine filed in January, read. "In reality, consumers who use Google products cannot prevent Google from collecting, storing and profiting from their location." Racine's office also accused Google of employing "dark patterns," which are design choices intended to deceive users into carrying out actions that don't benefit them. Specifically, the AG's office claimed that Google repeatedly prompted users to switch in location tracking in certain apps and informed them that certain features wouldn't work properly if location tracking wasn't on. Racine and his team found that location data wasn't even needed for the app in question. They asserted that Google made it "impossible for users to opt out of having their location tracked."
Not even.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Not even a slap in the wrist. 9.5M, that is pocket change sucked up by the vacuum cleaner.
Yep. That is less than 20 minutes of Google revenue.
Re: (Score:2)
Yep. Amounts like these are calculated and risk-accepted as the cost of running the business from day 1.
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah, so.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Google 2022 annual ancillary cost summary:
Printer paper: $13 million
Toner: $11.5 million
Janitorial services: $10.1 million
Annual fines for deceptive practices: $9.5 million
Exterminator/Pest control: $3.2 million
Parking lot re-striping:
$19 per resident of DC is $9.5m (Score:3)
At that rate they should be paying about $6.5bn for all their settlements across the USA. They MIGHT notice that...
And the EU's GDPR fines can be even more significant.
Let's hope that Google gets slammed HARD for this.
What about some personal punishments? (Score:2)
Because some asshole made this decision and other assholes went along with it. This "fine" is something Google will not even notice.
Truth in advertising (Score:2)
There's the compulsory stalking by Google that upset the DoJ but the big problem is, Google lied about the arse-rape they would give their subscriber. The time the government cares about truth in advertising, it's not the crime being committed.
Pathetic (Score:3)
They should be forced to compensate the victims at $1 million per person and then the fine double that, along with a 3 strikes law for senior management.Screw up 3 times and its automatic prison time.
Or perhaps taking 10% of the shares off the top 100 shareholders would see changes in behaviour.