Google parent company %Alphabet ($GOOGL) has agreed to pay a record fine of $391.5 million U.S. to settle a lawsuit with 40 American states for allegedly misleading consumers about its %LocationTracking practices.
The attorney generals involved in the legal case called it the largest multi-state privacy settlement in U.S. history.
The coalition, which included the states of New York, Kentucky, and Oregon, among others, claimed that Google misled users about its location tracking practices dating back to 2014.
As part of the settlement, Google is required to be more transparent moving forward, including showing additional information whenever a location-related setting is turned on or off, making key location tracking policies clearly visible, and giving users more details on the types of location data being collected on them and its use.
Google has also agreed to new limits on its usage and storage of location information.
The attorneys general opened an investigation into Google after a 2018 Associated Press report claimed the company “records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to.”
The search engine giant faced a similar lawsuit in January of this year when four attorneys general from the District of Columbia, Texas, Indiana, and Washington state claimed the technology company used deceptive practices to track users’ physical location even after people made efforts to block Google from doing so.
Location data like the kind collected by Google can be used for targeted advertising and to build profiles on internet users.
Alphabet and other large technology companies have come under renewed scrutiny for their handling of location data in recent months.
Alphabet’s stock is down 34% this year at $95.70 U.S. per share.