Google accused of deceptive location tracking

Epoch Times:

The state of Arizona has filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against Google, alleging that the company used “unfair” practices to track the location data of its users even after they had turned off the tracking function.

The lawsuit, filed on May 27 by Attorney General Mark Brnovich, alleges that the technology company violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act. It requires Google to “disgorge gross receipts arising from its Arizona activities.”

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and argues that the maker of the Android smartphone operating system had set its mobile software to deceive device owners about protections afforded to them regarding their personal data.

“We filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against Google for deceptive and unfair practices used to obtain users’ location data, which Google then exploits for its lucrative advertising business,” Brnovich said in a statement on Twitter.

Brnovich pointed out that last year, over 80 percent of Google’s revenue—$135 billion out of $161 billion—came through advertising. He said in a Twitter thread that they brought forward the suit to put an end to Google’s “deceptive collection of user data” and to also “obtain monetary relief.”

“Google collects detailed information about its users, including their physical locations, to target users for advertising,” he said. “Often, this is done without the users’ consent or knowledge.”
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Google denies the allegations of the complaint.  But it raises another question that is an outgrowth of the Coronavirus pandemic--Contact Tracing.  That looks like government big brother activity.  Why is that not an invasion of privacy?