Google sued for violating user privacy by tracking cellphone location data
Suit accuses Google of violating privacy law, cites report confirmed by researchers
San Francisco, Aug. 21: A lawsuit filed in federal court here accuses Google of invading people’s privacy by tracking the whereabouts of smartphones users despite “location history” settings being turned off.
The suit filed on Friday by a California man seeks unspecified damages along with class- action status to represent all US iPhone or Android smartphone users who turned off location history in order not to have their movements logged by Google.
“Google expressly represented to users of its operating system and apps that the activation of certain settings will prevent the tracking of users’ geolocations,” the lawsuit read.
“This representation was false.”
The suit accuses Google of violating privacy law, and cites a news report last week confirmed by university researchers.
Google did not respond to a request for comment on the issue. After the report, Alphabet- owned Google modified its support page to read that turning off location history off “does not affect other location services on your device, like Google Location Services and Find My Device.” Location data may also be tracked for use in other services such as maps or search, the support page indicated.
The page had previously indicated that turning location history off meant places visited were not stored by Google.