The country’s Federal Court ordered Alphabet Inc.’s (Google unit) to pay A$60 million ($42.7 million) in fines for deceiving users about the collection of their personal location data, according to Australia’s competition watchdog on Friday.
The court found that between January 2017 and December 2018, Google misled some users regarding the personal location data that was gathered through their Android mobile devices.
According to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), Google misled users into thinking that the ‘location history’ setting on their Android phones was the only way for it to collect location data. However, a feature to track web and application activity also allowed local data collection and storage.
The watchdog, which believes that 1.3 million Australians with Google accounts may have been impacted, began legal action against the corporation and its local affiliate in October 2019.
In a statement sent via email, Google claimed to have resolved the issue and added that it had made managing and comprehending location data simple.
As the government debated and passed legislation requiring Google and Meta Platforms’ Facebook to compensate media companies for content on their platforms, the search engine giant has been embroiled in legal disputes in Australia over the past year.
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