Google settles user location tracking lawsuits for $29.5M

Google has agreed to settle for $29.5 million two lawsuits involving "deceptive" location tracking, reports The Hacker News. Indiana will be receiving $20 million while Washington, D.C., will be given $9.5 million after suing Google for tracking the location of users through the Web & App Activity setting even with Location History switched off. Dark patterns were also allegedly used by Google to lure users into oversharing information without their knowledge. "Google uses location data collected from Indiana consumers to build detailed user profiles and target ads, but Google has deceived and misled users about its practices since at least 2014," said Indiana in a statement. Apart from the monetary settlement, Google is also required to maintain a web page detailing all location data types and sources, provide more detailed Web & App Activity control information, and automatically delete device or IP address data in Web & App Activity within 30 days.