The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has ruled that Google has misled Android users about collecting location data. This ruling refers to the controversy over ‘Location History’ of a few years ago. The Associated Press reported at the time that disabling the location history setting does not disable all location tracking features in all Google products.
The ACCC press release states that from January 2017 to December 2018 (the AP article was published in August 2018) Google incorrectly suggested that the ‘Location History’ setting was the only Google Account setting that affected or kept Google personally identifiable collections. or used data on their location. “The ruling goes on to say, ‘In fact, another Google Account setting titled’ Web and App Activity ‘also enabled Google to collect, store and use Personally Identifying Location Data when enabled, and the setting is turned on by default. ‘
With the ACCC’s finding of wrongdoing, it’s not yet clear what the Australian government intends to do about the situation. The press release states: “The ACCC is seeking statements, fines, publication orders and compliance orders. This will be determined later.” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims added: “In addition to fines, we are requesting an order from Google to publish a notice to Australian consumers to better explain Google’s location data settings in the future. This will ensure that consumers can make informed choices. about whether certain Google settings that … collect location data should be enabled. ”
Location history only affects the data collected by Google Maps. This made sense in 2012, when Location History started as a setting in the Google Maps app. Google’s pressure on unified privacy settings, as seen in the “My Account” page in 2015, meant that all of these settings were pulled into a single page, and that “Location History” lost the Google Maps context. In 2018, the AP asked, “Why does this institution in my account called ‘Location History’ not disable location tracking for my entire account?” And a major controversy arose.
Google changed the location history settings after the AP article, and today the company says that the feature is “a Google Account-level setting that saves wherever you go with each mobile device.” Note that this applies to mobile devices only, and that a lot of location data still lives under the ‘Web and app activity’ setting, which Google considers to be vaguely ‘a number of location data’ on Google sites, apps, and services. ‘ As outlined in this support article, the other two Google location settings you may want to track are Google Maps location sharing, that is, sharing your location with your friends, and Android’s Google Location Accuracy (AKA Google Play Service’s Fused Location Provider ), which tries to calculate a low-power location of Wi-Fi and cellular data without turning on the expensive GPS receiver. Google does nothing in a unified, enterprise-wide way, and privacy settings are no exception.
Google’s privacy settings are so vague and confusing that even Google’s own employees do not understand it, and that the settings have already been the subject of at least one lawsuit.