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Australian regulator sues Google over location data collection

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has filed a privacy lawsuit against Google, accusing it of not informing users, for almost 2 years, about the settings they had to switch off for it to not keep their information. The regulator said that Google misled users about how it collected and used their location data. The matter is scheduled for a case hearing on November 14, per Reuters report.  Google kept users’ in the dark about what it was doing with their personal data: ACCC’s accusations ACCC said that Google “collected, kept and used highly sensitive and valuable personal information about consumers’ location without them making an informed choice”. Turning off "Location History" did not actually turn it off: The ACCC said when people set up their Google accounts on phones and tablets, they would have incorrectly believed that “Location History” was the only setting that affected whether the company was collecting a user’s location data. Whereas, the setting “Web and App Activity” also had to be switched off if users did not want their location data to be collected. The Australian regulator said, “Google has failed to make clear to the consumers that they would need to change their choices on a separate setting titled “Web and App Activity” to prevent this location tracking.” By default, the new Google accounts have location history turned off, while web and app activity turned on. However, if the later remained switched on, the company continued to collect personal information including the user’s…

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