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Alphabet's Google has agreed to pay $391.5 million to settle a lawsuit with 40 states for illegally tracking users' locations in the largest privacy settlement in U.S. history. In addition, Google must make significant improvements to its user controls and location-tracking disclosures.
The states accused Google of continuing to track users' location even after they disabled the features. Google plans to roll out the new protections and features in 2023.
"For years, Google has prioritized profit over their users' privacy," Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said in a press release. "They have been crafty and deceptive. Consumers thought they had turned off their location tracking features on Google, but the company continued to secretly record their movements and use that information for advertisers."
In a blog post, Marlo McGriff, Director of Product, Geo, and David Monsees, Search Product Lead, outlined several steps the company has already taken to protect users' privacy and what the company will do going forward. The updates include revamping user information hubs to make them more transparent and making it easier to delete location data.
"Today's settlement is another step along the path of giving more meaningful choices and minimizing data collection while providing more helpful services," they wrote.