Australia finds Google 'misled public' over data collection, tech giant responds

Australia’s federal court on April 16 ruled that Google misled the users about personal location data collected through Android mobile devices between 2017and 2018. In a statement on Friday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) that launched the legal proceedings against Google in 2019, termed the latest ruling against the search engine giant as a significant victory for all the consumers considering the protection of online privacy. ACCC Chair Rod Sims said in a statement that the decision of the federal court is an “important step” to ensure that digital platforms are honest with the consumers. 

“This is an important victory for consumers, especially anyone concerned about their privacy online, as the Court’s decision sends a strong message to Google and others that big businesses must not mislead their customers,” ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.

“Today’s decision is an important step to make sure digital platforms are up front with consumers about what is happening with their data and what they can do to protect it.”

Australian federal court ruled that when the consumers created a new Google Account during the preliminary step for the set-up, the search engine giant misrepresented that the ‘Location History’ setting implying that it only impacted whether Google “collected, kept or used personally identifiable data about their location.” But, ACCC said, “Google Account setting titled ‘Web & App Activity’ also enabled Google to collect, store and use personally identifiable location data when it was turned on, and that setting was turned on by default.”

ACCC further said, “The Court also found that when consumers later accessed the ‘Location History’ setting on their Android device during the same time period to turn that setting off, they were also misled because Google did not inform them that by leaving the ‘Web & App Activity’ setting switched on, Google would continue to collect, store and use their personally identifiable location data.”

“The Court also found that Google’s conduct was liable to mislead the public,” it added.

Google says ‘we disagree’

As per the CNBC report, Google spokesperson said that the court rejected several of ACCC’s broad claims and said that the company ‘disagrees’ with the remaining findings. It reportedly said, “We disagree with the remaining findings and are currently reviewing our options, including a possible appeal.”

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