Google may face fines of millions of dollars in Australia for misleading users about data collection

Published:

April 17, 2021 02:52 GMT

A court sided with the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission, which accused the company of misleading users about how it collects their location data on Android devices.

Google could be forced to pay millions in fines after an Australian court ruled that the company misled users about how it collects personal data on Android mobile devices.

Federal court sided with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which filed a lawsuit against Google in October 2019, alleging that the tech giant Misleading consumers about location data Collected by Android devices between January 2017 and December 2018.

According to the complaint, Google allowed users to disable location history, but it continued to secretly track their movements unless they also turned off a different setting on the phone, which is the “app and web activity” option. Judge Thomas Tauley determined that the practice was “misleading or erroneous, or tending to mislead or deceive” users.

‘Strong message to Google’

“This is a huge victory for consumers, especially anyone concerned about their online privacy, like the court’s decision Send a strong message to Google And other big companies that shouldn’t deceive their customers, ”said ACCC president, Rod Sims, at Release Who described the ruling as the first of its kind in the world.

Sims announced that the watchdog will seek to impose “several million” fines on the tech giant, which collects them. ABC.

Google is reviewing the status and it is Looking attractiveAccording to a company spokesperson, pointing to That the court rejected some of the ACCC’s claims and that the company disagreed with the others.

• The ruling comes after a months-long dispute between Google and Canberra over which legislation forced The company, as well as Facebook, is to compensate local media for the content on its platforms.

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