Google settles biggest consumer fraud lawsuit in Arizona’s history for $85M

Google consumer fraud lawsuit overview: 

• Who: Google has agreed to an $85 million settlement with the State of Arizona. 
• Why: The settlement was made to resolve claims Google misled consumers about the way it was collecting and using their personal location data by continuing to track users who had turned off the feature. 
• Where: The lawsuit was filed in Arizona federal court. 

Google has agreed to pay $85 million in order to resolve claims the company misled consumers about how it collected and used their personal location data. 

The settlement puts an end to allegations brought against Google by the State of Arizona, which claimed that the tech giant violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act by allegedly tracking its users personal location data through their smartphones. 

The State of Arizona—which began investigating Google following the release of an Associated Press article in 2018—argued the company collected the personal location data of users who had manually turned off their device’s “Location History” setting. 

The settlement amount represents the highest amount per capita ever agreed to by Google in response to a privacy allegation of its kind, according to a news release from the state’s counsel Gallagher & Kennedy Law (G&K). 

Google had previously attempted to get summary judgment for the complaint—which was officially filed against the company in February 2021—and to “exclude experts on internet privacy and deceptive design practices,” according to G&K. 

Complaint first to accuse Google of exploiting user location data

“We thwarted Google’s efforts to try the case to a judge and thus quashed Google’s efforts to prevent an Arizona jury from hearing this case,” said G&K attorney Kevin D. Neal, in a statement. 

In addition to being the reported highest per capita settlement amount for a privacy complaint, the lawsuit was also the first to be brought against Google over alleged “deceptive and unfair collection, use, and exploitation of user location data,” according to G&K. 

“That’s what this lawsuit was all about: taking on big corporations to cause long-term change that benefits consumers. It truly was a David vs. Goliath situation and David won,” said Neal. 

In January, the attorneys general from four states and the District of Columbia filed parallel lawsuits against Google over claims the company kept tracking the locations of users who had disabled the function. 

Have you had your location data tracked by Google even after disabling the feature? Let us know in the comments! 

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