USA: Google must pay $391.5 million fine

In the USA, Google wanted to make its users believe that it was possible to deactivate the collection of location data. As it turned out afterwards, this was not the case, which has now earned the tech company a hefty fine of 391.5 million US dollars in the USA.

Data collection without consent over years

A total of 40 US states have sued Google. The Internet company had to take a seat in the dock because it had collected location data of its users without permission over many years. Not only was the explicit consent of the users missing. On top of that, they were not even informed afterwards that the corresponding data had been collected. The proceedings, which began in 2018, have now resulted in a settlement and a hefty fine of 391.5 million US dollars for Google. A report by the AP news agency set the ball rolling at the time. This revealed that Google was collecting data even when users actually switched off GPS tracking. Back in October, Google had to accept a million-dollar fine for Google Payments in India.

Google vows to mend its ways

For the reputation of the tech company, the years of deception of its customers is anything but beneficial. After all, the company had diligently collected location data behind the backs of its users without them being informed about it, let alone giving their consent. Since data protection is also becoming increasingly important for users in the U.S., the tech company promises that it will take a different approach in the future. In particular, there will be extensive improvements in the collection of location data. The only question is to what extent Google wants to regain the trust it has lost with many users. After all, it was already possible to deactivate the collection of location data in the past.

Nevertheless, in the view of Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, the corporation disregarded individual customer requests and diligently collected GPS data. The data was not used to personalize Google’s services, as customers were led to believe. Instead, it was passed on to advertising customers. The advertising business has always been one of the most important for the search engine giant. The company is also threatened with trouble here in Germany. The German Federal Cartel Office has been investigating Google since August on suspicion of predominance in the advertising sector. The authorities are focusing in particular on the Google Maps service. It remains to be seen when the authorities’ investigations will end and how they will turn out. However, they seem to be well-founded at this stage in any case.