Google will pay Indiana $20m to resolve a lawsuit the state initiated against the company over allegedly deceptive location tracking practices.
According to Security Week, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita filed a separate lawsuit against Google when negotiations between the firm and a coalition of state attorney generals stalled. Those states agreed to a $391.5 million settlement with the company in November.
As a result of the separate lawsuit, the state of Indiana received about twice as much money as it would have under the deal with the 40 states in the coalition, claimed Rokita.
He added, “his settlement is another manifestation of our steadfast commitment to protect Hoosiers from Big Tech’s intrusive schemes.”
US states began investigating after a story in 2018 found that Google continued to track people’s location data even after they opted out of such tracking. Google did not admit to any wrongdoing as part of the deal with Indiana.
In a statement, Google said that it had introduced more transparency over the past few years as well as tools to help users manage their data and minimise the data it collects.
Google said it launched auto-delete controls and turned them on by default for all new users, giving them the ability to automatically delete data on a rolling basis.
Rokita said he sued Google because even a limited amount of location data can expose a person’s identity and routines.
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