(San Francisco) A coalition of 40 American states welcomed on Monday having reached an agreement with Google, to oblige the Internet giant to make its methods of collecting user data more transparent, while the States States still do not have a federal law on the subject.
Google agreed to pay them $391.5 million to end the investigation.
“In accordance with the improvements we have made in recent years, we have ended this investigation which was based on obsolete regulations, which we changed years ago,” said a spokesperson for the Californian group, contacted by the AFP.
It’s the largest-ever multi-state agreement to protect personal information in the United States, according to a press release from the New Jersey Attorney General.
According to several states (including New Jersey, Arkansas, Florida, and even Illinois), the Internet giant violated consumers’ right to privacy by collecting geolocation data without their knowledge, for advertising targeting.
Attorneys general had launched investigations after an Associated Press article reported in 2018 that Google was tracking users even though they had disabled the option.
But the company continued to accumulate geolocation data through other services that connect to wifi and telephone antennas, from the search engine to the Google Maps mapping application.
“Incognito”
“Google cannot pretend to give users control tools over their personal information, and then ignore these features to collect and sell data to advertisers, contrary to the express request of Internet users,” said Matthew Platkin, the attorney general of the New Jersey, quoted in the press release.
“When platforms violate consumers’ right to privacy, they put them at risk,” he insists.
Under the terms of the agreement, Google must make it clearer what geolocation data is collected, including when the feature is disabled on one service but not on others.
The company must also inform users about the tools available to them to disable tracking of their location and possibly delete this data.
She published a statement on her blog on Monday, highlighting measures she already has in place, such as the automatic deletion of certain default data on a regular basis or the “incognito” mode on Google Maps, which does not store searches. of the user.
“Today’s agreement is another step to give more choices that make sense and reduce data collection, while providing more useful services,” said Google.
Federal Law
Unlike the European Union, the United States does not have a federal law on the protection of personal data. Some states, such as California or Colorado, have adopted similar texts. The others refer to local consumer protection laws.
Google, like its neighbors in Silicon Valley, has been repeatedly criticized for its economic model, which consists of selling finely targeted advertising space on a very large scale, and therefore depends on the data it collects on Internet users, their browsing online to their use of free applications.
The world’s number one digital advertising company used “cunning methods to deceive” users, said Ellen Rosenblum, Oregon’s attorney general.
“For years, Google has put profits ahead of user privacy,” she continued, echoing the mantra of many NGOs and politicians against Meta (Facebook, Instagram) and other major platforms.
She also notes that “companies will continue to accumulate mountains of personal data for marketing purposes until we have comprehensive privacy laws.”
But Silicon Valley is calling for a federal law that would set the rules in a uniform way.
“As the digital economy gains momentum and new technologies emerge, businesses, consumers, elected officials and internet users continue to wrestle with data handling issues,” the CCIA (Computer & Communications Industry Association), a trade association representing industry.
“Congress must pass basic federal rules on data privacy.”