In response to a protracted legal battle with Australia’s competition authority over deceiving customers about the collecting of their personal location data, Google has agreed to pay $60 million in fines. The federal court determined in April of last year that Google had violated consumer protection regulations by tricking some local customers to believe the corporation was not using mobile devices running Android operating systems to acquire personal information about their whereabouts.
With a user’s location history set to “off,” but their browser and app activity set to “on,” and one of Google’s apps being utilised, the issue in the case was whether it was sufficiently apparent that Google would still collect and access location data in certain circumstances.
The business was also found to have violated two more consumer statutes, including one pertaining to conduct that could deceive the public and the other involving making false statements about the performance qualities of service. When the decision was made, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it sent a clear message to digital platforms telling them to be transparent with customers about what is happening with their data.
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A brief federal court hearing on Friday was informed that the parties had presented a joint statement to Justice Thomas Thawley and had agreed on a $60 million penalty as being “fair and reasonable.” The court heard that there may still be questions regarding whether the punishment rendered future behaviour “economically irrational” and if the punishment was appropriate.
Before postponing the case until later on Friday, Thawley congratulated the parties and stated that he was certain the fine was within a reasonable range.
(with inputs from agencies)
