Google signed a settlement agreement with California authorities for allegedly spying on American users and agreed to pay a $93 million fine. reports The Guardian edition.
The lawsuit against Google was filed by California Attorney General Rob Bont. Bont accused the IT company of continuing to track user movements even after disabling the “Location History” function in Google account settings. The company obtains users’ geographical data not from the GPS module of the smartphone, but by analyzing their activities on websites and applications.
Google did not admit blame but agreed to make a number of changes to its services to increase the transparency of its work. In particular, the company will inform users about the use of geographic data before publishing ads.
The Guardian writes that this is not the first time Google has been fined for secretly spying on users in the US. The IT giant agreed to pay $392 million in compensation for a similar crime in 2022. The case was filed by the attorney general’s offices of 40 states.
Previously Apple asked employees remain silent about the dangerous radiation of the iPhone 12.