Business and Technology
Google to Settle "Tracking" Suit - Report
Alphabet's Google will pay about $400 million to settle a complaint brought by a group of U.S. states over allegations the search and advertising giant illegally tracked users' locations, two people familiar with the matter said.
The lawsuit, which includes Oregon, sources said, is a sign of mounting legal headaches for the tech company from U.S. state attorneys general who have aggressively targeted the firm's user tracking practices in recent months.
Texas, Indiana, Washington State and the District of Columbia sued Google in January over what they called deceptive location-tracking practices that invade users’ privacy.
Arizona filed a similar case against Google and settled it for $85 million in October 2022.
Google had revenue of $111 billion from advertising in the first half of this year, more than any other seller of online ads. A consumer's location is key to helping an advertiser cut through the digital clutter to make the ad more relevant and grab the consumer's attention.
As an example, if a target customer is located in Chicago, ads for goods and services in that metro area would be sent to that person's mobile and computer.
But privacy advocates say such "locating" can be misused.
