Sources said on Friday that Alphabet Inc’s Google unit was ordered by the country’s Federal Court to pay A4 60 million in penalties because of misleading users on collection of their personal data.
The court found that Google had misled some customers about personal location data collected through their Android mobile devices between January 2017 and December 2018. It happened as google misled users into believing that “location history” settings on their phones was the only medium through which could be collected. Meanwhile there was a feature that allowed to monitor the web and applications activity, it also allowed local data collection and storage., the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) said.
Sources also say that reportedly 1.3 million Google account users in Australia may have been affected, had begun the proceedings against the company and its local unit in October 2019.
Google took remedial measures in 2018, the regulator said. Google said in an email, that it had settled the matter and now the location information is simple to manage and easy to handle
The search engine giant has caught itself in legal action in Australia over the past year as the government has passed a law that ensures that Google and Facebook pay media companies for content on their platforms.
