South Dakota wins $4.2 million in legal settlement from Google | Media Pyro

PIERRE. SD – South Dakota Attorney General Mark Vargo announced Tuesday that South Dakota, along with 39 other states, reached a $391.5 million multi-million dollar settlement with Google over its contentious actions. South Dakota will receive approximately $4.2 million of the total settlement.

This is the largest confidential decision by the Attorney General in US history

The attorney general found that Google violated federal consumer protection laws by misleading consumers about its participation practices since 2014.

“This is an important day for consumers who want to make decisions in a transparent environment,” Vargo said. “We will continue to fight for the rights of our citizens.”

The investigation leading to this decision was launched after a 2018 article by the Associated Press said that Google “records your movements even when you tell them not to.”

Google uses the personal data it collects to create a detailed picture of its users and to target ads for its advertisers.

The settlement requires Google to be more transparent with consumers about its actions.

Must:

• Show users more information every time they change a related account setting to “on” or “off”;
• Make it impossible to avoid key user access information (ie, don’t hide it); a
• Provide users with detailed information about the types of location data that Google collects and uses on the “Location Technologies” web page.
• Limit the use and storage of certain types of location information.
• Get better Google account permissions.