Oh hai, Google.
Google has been accused of tracking both iOS and Android users regardless of their privacy settings. They’re now the subject of a lawsuit filed by one Napoleon Patacsil of San Diego. He is seeking class-action status for users of the popular service.
According to the complaint, Google assures users that by turning the “Location History” feature on their phones off, Google won’t track them. But instead, that does nothing to stop tracking by Google. From the complaint:
Google represented that a user ‘can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored.’ This simply was not true.
Patacsil is seeking unspecified damages against Google over the alleged tracking. Said tracking is in violation of California’s privacy laws. According to Patacsil, Google tracked him on his Android phone, as well as his iPhone, which had some Google apps downloaded on it. He states that Google’s “principal goal” was to “surreptitiously monitor” users, while allowing third parties to do the same.
According to an Associated Press article, the alleged tracking by the unit of Mountain View, California-based Alphabet Inc. was confirmed by computer science researchers at Princeton University.
Google has declined to comment on the matter. However, the help section of Google’s website no longer states that turning off Location History blocks tracking. In addition, it also notes that this does nothing for third party services, and that location data may be stored by other services.
Source: Reuters
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