Tech

Google sued for unwanted tracking of phone locations

Published

6 years ago

August 21, 2018

A lawsuit filed in federal court here accuses Google of invading people ’ s privacy by tracking the whereabouts of smartphones users despite “ location history ” settings being turned off .The suit filed Friday by a California man seeks unspecified damages along with class – action status to represent all US iPhone or Android smartphone users who turned off location history in order not to have their movements logged by Google .

“ Google expressly represented to users of its operating system and apps that the activation of certain settings will prevent the tracking of users’ geolocations , ” the lawsuit read .

“ This representation was false . ”

The suit accuses Google of violating privacy law , and cites a news report last week confirmed by university researchers .

Google did not respond to a request for comment.

After the report, Alphabet -owned Google modified its support page to read that turning off location history off “ does not affect other location services on your device , like Google Location Services and Find My Device. ”

Location data may also be tracked for use in other services such as maps or search , the support page indicated .

The page had previously indicated that turning location history off meant places visited were not stored by Google .

The Electronic Privacy Information Center , a non -profit public interest group , said it has sent a letter to the US Federal Trade Commission to look into whether Google has violated a 2011 consent order .

“ Google ’ s subsequent changes to its policy, after it has already obtained location data on Internet users , fails to comply with the 2011 order , ” Epic quoted its letter as stating .

( AFP )