Google has been sued in the United States of America over accusations of deception of people on how to control location tracking.
A bipartisan group of attorneys general has sued Google, alleging that the technology giant has used “dark patterns” and deceptive practices to track users’ physical location even when those users have made efforts to block Google from doing so.
The legal action refers to a widely reported 2018 revelation turning off one location-tracking setting in its Apps was insufficient to fully disable the feature.
Google was accused using dark patterns, marketing techniques that deliberately confuse users.
In the reactions of Google, the giant firm averred that the claims were factually inaccurate, incorrect and outdated.
‘Unfair practices’
The parallel lawsuits by the District of Columbia, Texas, Indiana and Washington state zero in on Google’s collection of location data, which can be used to target advertising and build profiles on internet users.
The suit referred to an Associated Press revelation turning off Location History when using Google Maps or Search was insufficient – as a separate setting, Web and App Activity, continued to log location and other personal data.
The study, with researchers at Princeton University, found up to two billion Android and Apple devices could be affected.
“Google has relied on, and continues to rely on, deceptive and unfair practices that make it difficult for users to decline location tracking or to evaluate the data collection and processing to which they are purportedly consenting,” the legal action alleges.
‘Robust controls’
In an interview with Google, the firm objected that the case was based “on inaccurate claims and outdated assertions about our settings”.
A representative of Goggle added “We have always built privacy features into our products and provided robust controls for location data. We will vigorously defend ourselves and set the record straight.”
Visual misdirection
According to the complaint, Google also allegedly tried to circumvent users’ expressed preferences with workarounds, such as using IP addresses to determine a user’s location or collecting location data via Google’s apps installed on mobile devices. The allegedly illegal behavior affects virtually all mobile users who interact with Google, according to the complaint, whether they own an Android device, an iPhone, a PC or a tablet.
The legal action claimed Google’s policies contained other “misleading, ambiguous and incomplete descriptions.
To facilitate its data collection, Google allegedly relied on “dark patterns”, stating that subtle design choices intended to guide users toward adopting behavior favorable to Google.
