In particular, they require reimbursement of revenue generated through the collection and use of geolocation data, as well as fines, of an amount not specified.
Le Monde
The prosecutors of several American states have assigned Google in court on Monday, January 24, accusing him of collecting the geolocation data of Internet users even when they expressly refused – what the group denies. The latter offers users of the Android operating system or the owners of an iPhone using a Google Account to enable the option preventing geolocation data collection.
By, according to the document filed Monday by the prosecutors of the Federal Capital Washington, the Indiana, Texas and Washington State, even when the option was activated, “Google continued to collect and store “Data on the location of Internet users. These data came from the Internet activity, the use of applications, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth interactions.
This offset between the proposed features and their effects on the use of geolocation data has been brought up, in 2018, by the Associated Press press agency. The dispatch published by AP attracted the attention of prosecutors of several States, which launched their own investigation.
Other procedures in progress
According to the prosecutors, the period concerned is from 2014 to 2019 at least. Each of them seized the justice of his state and claims to the judges to guide Google to stop these practices. They also ask for reimbursement of revenue generated through the collection and use of geolocation data, as well as fines, from an unspecified amount.
For his part, Google argued that the legal action was relying “on inaccurate affirmations and outdated assertions. We have always integrated data protection options into our products and offered to effectively control data geolocation “. “We will defend us with force and restore the truth,” said a spokesman, who has drawn up a list of “improvements” put in place by Google “in recent years”.
This list includes options that, depending on the spokeswoman, automatically delete geolocation data over time or searching for an address or place without the data stored. Google has been the subject of several legal actions in recent years.
In July, thirty-six states and the Capital Prosecutor Washington attacked the alphabet affiliate for practices deemed anticcompetitive related to his Google Play application shop. Two other procedures are in progress in the United States regarding the dominant position of Google’s search engine, and a third is related to advertising technology.