Grand Canyon Times

A judge recently refused to throw out a lawsuit brought by Arizona's attorney general alleging that Google uses deceptive location tracking practices that invades the privacy of users as states across the U.S. file similar lawsuits of their own.

Texas filed a lawsuit Monday against Google alleging that the company engages in deceptive location tracking. Indiana, Washington State and Washington, D.C. have filed similar lawsuits accusing Google of using "dark patterns" to mislead users.

"One of the suits says that Google designs its products to push or pressure people to provide more location data, either inadvertently or out of frustration," David Shepardson, who reported on the lawsuit for Reuters, told Texas Standard. "This is about other data that phones collect, beyond just that location history. And Google is able to use that data to continue to amass data about where users are and to help create profiles to help target advertising."

Google was recently told that the Arizona suit, filed in 2020, will not be thrown out. 

"Google falsely led consumers to believe that changing their account and device settings would allow customers to protect their privacy and control what personal data the company could access," Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine's office said in a statement. Still, Google "continues to systematically surveil customers and profit from customer data." The statement went on to refer to the practice as "a clear violation of consumers’ privacy."

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleged that Google misleads consumers with their location tracking policies. 

"(The) attorneys general are bringing a case based on inaccurate claims and outdated assertions about our settings," said Jose Castaneda, Google spokesperson. "We have always built privacy features into our products and provided robust controls for location data. We will vigorously defend ourselves and set the record straight."

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Google made nearly $150 billion from advertising in 2020. 

"Location data is key to Google’s advertising business. Consequently, it has a financial incentive to dissuade users from withholding access to that data," Ferguson's office said in a statement Monday.

"The stunning allegations in this bipartisan suit by four attorneys general show, yet again, that tech companies continue to mislead, deceive, and prioritize profits over protecting user privacy," U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said. "Congress must urgently meet this moment in the privacy crisis by passing a comprehensive law that provides the privacy protections that Americans need and deserve."