State of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said on Tuesday that Google will pay $85 million to settle a lawsuit alleging the firm improperly monitored users of Android devices. Another claim made by Brnovich’s office is that this payment is the biggest paid by Google in a consumer fraud action on a per-person basis.
For its “deceptive and unfair tactics used to gather users’ location data,” Google paid out $85 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by former employee and now attorney, Brnovich.
“This lawsuit is based on antiquated product rules that we updated years ago,” a Google spokeswoman told CNET. We’re relieved to finally put this behind us and look forward to returning our full concentration to developing quality software for our customers.
Accusing Google of engaging in unfair and fraudulent activities in order to acquire user location data, Brnovich filed an action against the firm in 2020. Two years after the Associated Press disclosed that Google monitored user location data regardless of consumer requests to the contrary, the company was sued for allegedly doing just that.
This case is the most recent one Google has resolved without going to court.
Google paid up $118 million to terminate a discrimination case in June, and another $100 million to dismiss a class action lawsuit alleging the firm broke Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act in May.
The deadline to submit a claim in the Google class action lawsuit is today. A $100 million settlement was reached earlier this year between Google and the state of Illinois, and citizens of the state whose images have appeared in a Google Photos album anytime in the last seven years may be entitled to a payment of up to $400.
In Rivera et al. v. Superior Court, the claimant Google claims that the Face Grouping function of Google Photos violates Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act because images are collected, stored, and organized “without adequate notice and permission.” In 2008, Illinois passed legislation mandating that businesses get people’s permission before using biometric equipment like face recognition software, fingerprint scans, etc.
Google consented to the multimillion-dollar compensation in May despite its denial of guilt.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers say eligible Illinois citizens might get up to $400 if they act quickly, but the deadline to submit a claim is September 24. The settlement and attorney expenses will be declared “fair, reasonable, and appropriate” at a final hearing scheduled for September 28.
Be the details on the Google Photo biometric privacy lawsuit, including who may file a claim, how much they might get paid, and when they could get their money, right here.
Check out the Capital One $190 million compensation, the SnapChat $35 million biometric data lawsuit, and the T-Mobile $350 million data-breach settlement for additional information on class-action payouts.
