Attorneys general from D.C. and three states plan to sue Google on Monday, arguing that the search giant deceived consumers to gain access to their location data.
The lawsuits, expected to be filed in the District of Columbia, Texas, Washington and Indiana, allege the company made misleading promises about its users' ability to protect their privacy through Google account settings, dating to at least 2014. The suits seek to stop Google from engaging in these practices and to fine the company.
The complaints also allege the company has deployed "dark patterns," or design tricks that can subtly influence users' decisions in ways that are advantageous for a business. The lawsuits say Google has designed its products to repeatedly nudge or pressure people to provide more and more location data, "inadvertently or out of frustration." The suits allege this violates various state and D.C. consumer protection laws.
"Google uses tricks to continuously seek to track a user's location," said D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D). "This suit, by four attorneys general, on a bipartisan basis, is an overdue enforcement action against a flagrant violator of privacy and the laws of our states."
State and D.C. attorneys general from both parties are increasingly taking a more active role by investigating and bringing legal challenges against tech giants.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Wednesday January 26 2022, @04:11AM (2 children)
The law is taking them to task - 10 years after everybody else has known about this and the other nasty tricks, but hey, better late than never. Not that it won't change anything in the long run though: what's the law against Google eh?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 26 2022, @03:35PM
Google has a powerful counter argument known as campaign contributions.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 26 2022, @05:22PM
Say what you will about Google's "deceptive" business practices... more than any other company, Google has been open and "in my face" about what data they are collecting from me. They don't silently collect your position data in the background and sell it, in addition to the (heinously inadequate) click-through license notification, wording of which is nearly moot due to the practical amount of attention the bulk of their users are capable of paying to it, they send me monthly summaries of where I have been, plotted on maps, annotated with names of businesses they have "seen" me spend time at, etc. You have the option to turn those notifications down, or off, but by default you are notified that the data is being collected, and openly demonstrated just how detailed it is, and isn't.
They started a similar thing with their gmail reading long ago. Think we're not reading your mail? Well, think again: here's a notice that you have a flight scheduled at 3pm and it's time for you to leave your current location so you can get to the airport in time to clear security before the flight - and they have that notification nailed down to the minute. Did somebody say "threesome" in your e-mail correspondence? Well, here's some helpful advertisements about couples looking for a third in your area, as well as helpful psychology stories about open relationships...
Would I rather they keep their noses out entirely? Yes, that would be ideal, but even if you turn Google's collection intensity down (I doubt there's an actual "Off" setting), Google is far from the only one tracking your data. Better to be made consciously aware so you can more effectively "go dark" when you want to, rather than live in oblivious denial that your every move is tracked, recorded, analyzed and acted on by those who might profit from it.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by gznork26 on Wednesday January 26 2022, @05:33AM (1 child)
We know that Google use the location data from Android phones to provide traffic flow data on their maps. What else do they use it for?
Khipu were Turing complete.
(Score: 4, Funny) by mhajicek on Wednesday January 26 2022, @06:19AM
Well, a few years ago when my wife took the kids on a road trip, they suddenly began serving me dating site ads...
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 26 2022, @05:33AM (5 children)
Oh, that's sounds scary, but why all this bigotry against darkness? Sounds kinda racist to me. I mean, if we can't have "master/slave", we have to ditch light/dark
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Wednesday January 26 2022, @12:39PM (1 child)
Indeed. I yearn for the day when we finally recognize that adjectives are inherently evil. All people are indistinguishable from one another: they are equal. As we all know the best way to enforce a mass delusion is to control peoples' language.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Gaaark on Wednesday January 26 2022, @02:46PM
My wife is watching old Amazing Race shows: in the one was a black family with the last name Black, so every time they showed up on the screen the captions showed "Black Family".
I'd laugh every time because it just seemed so racist: if you didn't know their last name was Black, you'd be thinking "Holy shit, Amazing Races....WTF???!" :)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @01:01AM
Um.. Hellloo! That "Spam" mod is very unfair. Please remove
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @06:59PM
Hmm, Spam mod still there.. Maybe this place really has gone to the dogs, so much bullshit going on
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 28 2022, @03:50AM
All cleared up.. Thank you, Mister Admin Sir... Let's hope people can lighten up again
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday January 26 2022, @09:47AM (1 child)
More news at 11:00!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 26 2022, @03:38PM
Dark patterns are bad.
Google should do these things out in the open, in the light. They should also tell everyone that it is good for them, and that Google is not evil.
Only a small portion of the population will complain.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday January 26 2022, @03:29PM (1 child)
Once upon a time, there was a simple motto, "Don't Be Evil". Too bad they thought that was too constraining.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Wednesday January 26 2022, @03:40PM
Maybe nothing changed. Maybe the "Don't Be Evil" motto was a deliberate lie. Even back then. While they laughed an evil laugh as people believed them.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 26 2022, @06:08PM
and the law shows up when you least expect it ... maybe they forgot to open the port for the VPN server to their raw backend data for too long?