Google—Google settled for $391.5 million with 40 states over deceptive location tracking practices
In November 2022, Google agreed to pay $391.5 million to settle with 40 US state attorneys general over allegations that the company tracked users' locations even after they believed they had turned off location tracking. The investigation found Google used dark patterns and confusing account settings to continue collecting location data. This was the largest multi-state attorney general privacy settlement in US history at the time.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| User Autonomy | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| User Privacy | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.664 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
Google agreed to $391.5 million settlement with 40 states over deceptive location tracking
Google settled with 40 US state attorneys general for $391.5 million — the largest multi-state AG privacy settlement in US history — over allegations that Google tracked users' locations even after they turned off location tracking. The investigation found Google used dark patterns and confusing settings to continue collecting location data.