At the time,Google made it sound as though turning off “location history” — a service that maps wherever you go with your devices — would stop the company from collecting data about a user’s location. But consumers also needed to turn off another setting,one with no mention of location data - “App and web activity”,to completely stop Google from tracking their location.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims said the federal court decision in its favour earlier this month was “an important victory for consumers,especially those concerned about their privacy online.
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“The court’s decision sends a strong message to Google and others that big businesses must not mislead their customers. Consumers should not be kept in the dark when it comes to the collection of their personal location data.”
The exact penalties against Google are yet to be decided. But while this specific problem has been rectified since 2018 — the description of “App and web activity” now specifically mentions location data — understanding what happens to geographical information collected by your phone remains a minefield.
“Companies are choosing to treat privacy policies like marketing documents,and persuade consumers not to read further,and to not inquire further about how the information is being treated,” said University of New South Wales senior lecturer Dr Katharine Kemp.
“They do that by listing the most attractive sounding uses,and the most innocuous sounding uses of the information first,and leaving anything that would concern consumers to much later in the policy.”