WASHINGTON, January 24, Reuters -- Texas and the District of Columbia sued Alphabet Inc.'s Google GOOGL.O on Monday over what he called deceptive location tracking practices that invade users privacy.
Two other state attorneys general plan to file lawsuits as well as be part of a bipartisan effort to hold Google accountable over privacy, Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine's office said in a statement.
It was false to believe that changing their account and device settings would allow customers to protect their privacy and control what personal data could be accessed by Google, according to Racine.
The truth is that, contrary to Google's representations, it continues to systematically surveil customers and profit from customer data. Google's misrepresentations are a clear violation of the privacy of consumers. Google Spokesperson Jose Castaneda said the attorneys general are bringing a case based on inaccurate claims and outdated assertions about our settings. Privacy features have always been included in our products and we have robust controls for location data. We will vigorously defend ourselves and set the record straight. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said that Google misled consumers by continuing to track their location even when they tried to prevent it.
Texas said that Google has a Location History setting that informs users if they turn it off the places they go are no longer stored.
Texas said Google continues to track users' location through other settings and methods that it doesn't disclose.
In May 2020, Arizona filed a similar lawsuit against Google over its collection of location data.