Australia’s federal court found that the company had misled Android users about the location data collected through their mobile devices. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched the legal action against Google back in 2019. It argued that if a consumer disabled the “Location History” setting on their device, but left “Web & App Activity” on, Google continued to collect, store, and use their personally identifiable location data. Justice Thomas Thawley agreed that the firm had “partially” misled some users and thereby contravened Australian consumer law. The penalty will be determined at a later date. [Read: The biggest tech trends of 2021, according to 3 founders] ACCC Chair Rod Sims said he was pleased by the outcome of the “world-first case:” Inevitably, Google wasn’t quite so cheery. A Google spokesperson said the firm was considering an appeal: Australia is certainly keeping Google busy. In February, the country passed a new law that will force the firm to pay local news outlets for linking their content in news feeds or search results.
