In response to claims that it tracked users' whereabouts without their consent, Google has agreed to pay 40 states $391.5 million as part of a settlement (via The New York Times).
Beginning in 2023, Google must notify users when location tracking is enabled and provide instructions on how to disable the service as part of the settlement.
The complaint was brought by a group of attorneys general from Oregon, New York, Florida, Nebraska, and other states in response to an Associated Press article from 2018
that exposed how Google secretly tracked users' whereabouts across a variety of its services on iPhone and Android.
According to the lawsuit, Google deceived consumers into believing their location had been turned off between 2014 and 2019 and used that information to market tailored adverts.
Google claims that the complaint is based on "outdated product policies" that the firm has already addressed in a blog post that was published on Monday.