Australian court orders Google to pay $43 million for misleading users

Letters spell the word ‘Alphabet’ as seen on a computer screen with a Google search page in this photo illustration taken in Paris, France, August 11, 2015. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo

Aug 12 (Reuters) – Australia’s competition watchdog said on Friday that the Alphabet Inc. index (GOOGL.O) The country’s Federal Court has ordered the Google unit to pay A$60 million ( $42.7 million) in penalties for misleading users in collecting their personal location data.

The court found that Google misled certain customers about personal location data collected through their Android mobile devices between January 2017 and December 2018. (https://reut.rs/3Ajr3Pn)

Google misled users into believing that the “location history” setting on their Android phones was the only way to collect location data, while a feature to monitor web and app activity also enabled the collection and storage of local data, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said.

The watchdog, which estimates that 1.3 million Google account users in Australia may have been affected, began proceedings against the company and its local unit in October 2019.

Google took corrective action in 2018, the regulator said.

In an emailed statement, Google said it had fixed the issue and added that it had made location information simple to manage and easy to understand.

The search engine giant has been embroiled in legal action in Australia over the past year as the government mulls and passes legislation to make Google and Meta Platforms (META.O) Facebook pay media companies for the content on their platforms. (https://reut.rs/3JRaTzz)

($1 = 1.4055 Australian dollars)

Reporting by Navya Mittal in Bangalore; Edited by Sriraj Kalluvila

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