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Oh ****

arthwollipot

Observer of Phenomena, Pronouns: he/him
arthwollipot
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Feb 11, 2005
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Google deceived some Australian mobile users about collection of location data, court finds

Google could face fines in the "many millions" after the Federal Court found the company misled some Australian mobile and tablet users about how it collects location data.

The tech giant was taken to court by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) over on-screen representations it made on Android devices in 2017 and 2018.

The case centred on two specific Google settings that affected location data collection; 'location history' and 'web & app activity'.

The consumer watchdog claimed Google misled consumers because if 'location history' was disabled but the latter setting was left on, the company continued to collect and use location data.

The result represents a partial victory for the ACCC, because the watchdog identified specific user scenarios which constituted contraventions of consumer law.

"I am satisfied that Google's conduct assessed as a whole was misleading or deceptive of, or likely to mislead or deceive, ordinary members within the class identified by the ACCC, acting reasonably," Justice Thomas Thawley said in his judgment.

"I conclude that Google's conduct assessed as a whole conveyed a representation that having 'web & app activity' turned 'on' would not allow Google to obtain, retain and use personal data about the user's location."

...

After an Associated Press (AP) media article covered the location data and settings issue in August 2018, Google urgently held what was internally referred to as the "oh ****" meeting, the court heard.

A Google director then circulated documents about what work was being carried out to reduce user confusion.

The AP article led to a 500 per cent increase in users disabling both settings, according to internal Google documents.
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arthwollipot said:
Google deceived some Australian mobile users about collection of location data, court finds
Click to expand...

I'm very much a non-fan of Google because of stunts like this. I suspect as a company they have good internal controls as to who can view what data, and Google has been known to fight requests by third parties to turn over data. But there are still things like national security letters in the US where a company can't even disclose they've received one, let alone if they've complied with it.

I don't like the idea that a lot of what I do is being tracked and stored by third parties, most of which are unregulated.
 
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