AG files lawsuit against Google for secretly tracking consumers' locations

OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson will file a lawsuit today against technology giant Google for deceptively leading consumers to believe that they have control over how their location data is collected and used by Google. 

In reality, consumers cannot effectively prevent Google from collecting, storing and profiting from their location data.

Google collects data on the location of its users even after consumers turn off “Location History” in their account settings. This deception is profitable for Google. Google’s ability to target ads to users based on information about their locations is critical to the success of its billion-dollar advertising business.

Ferguson’s lawsuit, to be filed in King County Superior Court, asserts Google uses a number of deceptive and unfair practices to obtain users’ “consent” to be tracked. As a result, it is nearly impossible for users to stop Google from collecting their location data. These practices include hard-to-find location settings, misleading descriptions of location settings, repeated nudging to enable location settings and incomplete disclosures of Google’s location data collection.

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