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In a world-first, a federal body has stated that US-based tech giant Google tricked its users in Australia. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), on Friday, shared that the Federal Court has discovered Google LLC and Google Australia Pty Ltd have deceived Australian consumers regarding private location data accumulated via Android mobile devices between the time period of January 2017 and December 2018.
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Rod Sims, ACCC Chair, shared that this is a substantial win for the consumers because the Court’s ruling delivers a strong note to big corporates, including Google to not to dupe their consumers.
The ACCC started trials against Google in October 2019.
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The Google settings that tricked people
The Federal Court explained that when people in Australia formed new Google accounts during the initial set-up on their Android devices, Google falsely represented that only the ‘Location History’ setting gets impacted whether Google gathered, saved or utilised personal data related to the place.
Also, the ‘Web & App Activity' setting, when turned on, also enable Google to collate, hoard and utilise personal location data.
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The Federal Court also identified that when Google users selected the ‘Location History’ setting option later on their Andriod devices while turning that setting off, again Google misled them because it did not inform that by leaving the setting on, Google would go on to collect, store and use the personal location data.
It also informed that from March 9, 2017, to November 29, 2018, when people later opened the ‘Web & App Activity’ setting, they were misinformed because Google did not notify them that on the pertinence of the setting to the collection of the records of personal location.
Sims shared that this is world’s first case, and the outcome is satisfying. He elaborated that big companies that collect information should explain their settings distinctly and elaborately so that consumers are not misled.
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Source: Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, Date 16 April 2021
