Google ordered to pay $60 million after ACCC takes action over consumer data collection

Following action by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Google has been ordered to pay $60 million by the Federal Court for misleading representations about its collection and use of consumers’ personal location data.

ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said the outcome sends a “strong message” to all digital platforms and businesses to not mislead consumers on how consumer data is collected and used.

“Google, one of the world’s largest companies, was able to keep the location data collected through the ‘Web & App Activity’ setting and that retained data could be used by Google to target ads to some consumers, even if those consumers had the ‘Location History’ setting turned off.

“Personal location data is sensitive and important to some consumers, and some of the users who saw the representations may have made different choices about the collection, storage and use of their location data if the misleading representations had not been made by Google,” Cass-Gottlieb said.

The tech giant has taken “remedial steps” and addressed all of the contravening conduct by 20 December 2018, with the ACCC estimating 1.3 million accounts viewed the screens containing misleading information.

“Companies need to be transparent about the types of data that they are collecting and how the data is collected and may be used, so that consumers can make informed decisions about who they share that data with,” the chair added.

Cass-Gottlieb added this marked the first public enforcement of the ACCC digital platforms inquiry.

The court has further ordered the tech giant to ensure its policies contain a commitment to compliance and train certain staff on Australian consumer law. Google will also contribute to the ACCC’s costs.

This article was first published by The Mandarin.