US suits accuse Google of tracking data without users’ permission

A group of top US justice officials have accused Google in lawsuits of tracking and profiting from users’ location data, despite leading consumers to think they could protect their privacy on the tech giant’s services.

Google builds detailed profiles and sells highly targeted advertising with data collected from its billions of users — with location being a key piece of information, argued the suits that seek to block the alleged practices.

“Google falsely led consumers to believe that changing their account and device settings would allow customers to protect their privacy,” says Karl Racine, the attorney general in the nation’s capital Washington.

These suits are the latest legal threats against Google and other US Big Tech giants, which have long faced probes and court cases but a lack of new national laws that would regulate their businesses.

Attorneys general — states’ top law enforcers and legal advisers — from Indiana, Washington and Texas were to file suits making the same allegations against the tech colossus.

Google says the officials’ claims were inaccurate and based on outdated assertions about its settings.

“We have always built privacy features into our products and provided robust controls for location data,” Google says in a statement. “We will vigorously defend ourselves and set the record straight.”