Google is occasionally involved in legal battles over its location tracking activities, and a 2019 investigation into its location data collection has now resulted in the company paying AU $60 million (approximately US $40 million) in fines for making false claims about its practices.
Australia's federal court has ordered the search giant to pay the fines for violating the country's Consumer Law. The decision stemmed from Google's misleading claim that only the “Location History” setting on Android was responsible for collecting, keeping, and using personally identifiable data about user location.
This means that Google concealed how the “Web & App Activity” setting on Android phones also allowed it "to collect, store and use personally identifiable location data when it was turned on," according to a press release issued by Australia’s Competition & Consumer Commission.
The ACCC added that this particular setting was enabled by default. The incident occurred between January 2017 and December 2018, prompting the ACCC to instigate proceedings against Google and its Australian subsidiary in October 2019.
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