If you ever feel like Google is tracking you, it’s because they literally are. “The truth is that contrary to Google’s claims, it continues to systematically survey customers and profit from customer data,” Karl A. Racine, attorney general for the District of Columbia, said in An announcement.first
He is one of four attorneys general to have sued Google for fraudulent practices in collecting location data from the public. Separate lawsuits allege that Google continued to track users’ location data even after they turned off location tracking.
“Google has led consumers to believe that changing their account and device settings will allow customers to protect their privacy and control what personal data the company can access,” Racine said. access”.2
Google has been secretly tracking people since at least 2014
Racine began an investigation into Google after a 2018 AP News report revealed that Google was tracking people’s movements even when they refused to do so.3 Racine’s investigation found that Google’s misleading statements to users regarding the privacy protections available in their account settings have been going on since at least 2014.4
The AP investigation includes a real-life example from privacy researcher Gunes Acar, whose location was tracked to dozens of locations over several days and the data was saved to his Google account, even though he has “Location History” turned off. his mobile phone.5
Location data collected by Google has previously been used in criminal cases, including police orders in Raleigh, North Carolina, to track down devices in the area of a murder.6 When you use an app like Google Maps, it asks you for permission to access your location, but it also tracks your location while using apps that you might not expect. According to an AP investigation:7
“For example, Google stores a snapshot of your location when you just open its Maps app. Automatic daily weather updates on your Android phone pinpoint your exact location. And some searches that aren’t related to location, such as “chocolate chip cookies” or “kids science kits,” pinpoint your latitude and longitude – accurate to feet. square – and save it to your Google account.
The privacy issue affects approximately two billion device users running Google’s Android operating software, and hundreds of millions of iPhone users worldwide who rely on Google for maps or search.”
Tracks You Even With ‘Location History’ Off
The problem is that the company continues to track its users even with Location History turned off. “If you are going to allow users to turn off this thing called ‘Location History,’ then all the places where you maintain location history should be turned off,” said Jonathan Mayer, former chief technology officer of the enforcement department of The Federal Communications Commission, told the AP, “That seems like a pretty simple position to have.”8
Indeed, it states on the Google Account Help website, “You can turn off Location History for your account at any time.” However, only the bottom of the page explains, that location data can still be saved even if Location History is paused:9
“If you have other settings enabled like Web & App Activity and paused Location History or cleared location data from Location History, you may still be able to save location data in your Google Account. yourself as part of your use of other Google websites, applications, and services.
For example, location data may be saved as part of your Search and Maps activity when your Web and App Activity settings are enabled and included in your photos depending on the app settings your camera. ”
In addition to hiding location tracking in settings users don’t expect, such as Web & App Activity – enabled by default – Google allegedly collects and stores location information through services. Google services, Wi-Fi data and marketing partners, again after device or account settings have been changed to stop location tracking.ten
In addition to the District of Columbia, the attorneys general of Texas, Washington, and Indiana have also filed lawsuits against Google for their fraudulent data collection practices. The lawsuits allege that Google also pressured users to use location tracking more often because it falsely claimed that its products would not function properly without it. have it.11
“Google has prioritized profits over people,” Todd Rokita, Indiana Attorney General, told The New York Times. “It has prioritized financial income over following the law.”twelfth Meanwhile, Texas has also filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google alleging that it has abused its monopoly on ad space auctions for marketers. The lawsuit involves people from more than a dozen other states alleging that Google maintains and abuses a monopoly on online searches.13
Google even tracks kids
According to Robert Epstein, a Harvard-trained psychologist who is now a senior research psychologist at the American Institute of Behavioral Research and Technology, Google is known as a dictator with unprecedented power. . , where over the past decade he’s helped expose Google’s deceptive and manipulative practices.
They are not just watchdogs – think of products like Google Wallet, Google Docs, Google Drive, and YouTube – but censors with the ability to restrict or block access to websites on the internet. , thus deciding what you can and cannot see yet.
Google has also made inroads into education with Google’s classrooms, whose use has skyrocketed during the pandemic, but many people don’t know that even their children are being spied on. New Mexico’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Google for educational tools in their classrooms that help “cross the fog,” says Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff:14
“[The suit is] identify the massive amount of data they’re taking on kids, how they’re tracking them on the internet, and they’ve integrated that data with all of Google’s other streams of information and used it as a platform to track those kids. that child throughout adulthood. ”
The suit was later dismissed, but the attorney general filed an appeal, asserting that Google’s G-Suite for Education products “track the online activities of New Mexico students for commercial purposes.” separately without notice to the parent and without attempting to obtain parental consent. ”15
Google Force Installed COVID-19 Tracking App
In another sign of Google’s authoritarian leanings, it teamed up with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and Apple to create a smartphone app called MassNotify that tracks and tracks people, Ask the user about someone else’s COVID-19 status.
Although the tool claims to have been developed “with a focus on privacy”,16 This app suddenly appeared on Massachusetts resident’s Android phone without consent. Users had to enable the feature for it to work, but it was extremely disturbing that the tool was automatically added to everyone’s mobile phone, whether they intended to use it or not. .
In China, the COVID-19 tracking app has been used as a monitoring tool in coordination with its social credit system, touting that the installed app can track movement and contact residents without their knowledge and consent. The MassNotify app uses Google and Apple’s Bluetooth-based Exposure Notifications Express program.
The software framework was first released in April 2020,17 with the goal of allowing users who test positive for COVID-19 to report their results, which will then send an alert to anyone whose phone has crossed the street with a positive case, and may have been exposed. The Exposure Notifications Express program acts as a blueprint from which states can deploy their own tracking systems without having to develop their own individual applications.
While other states require users to download an app to use the system, MassNotify has been integrated directly into the operating system of Android phones.18 Such apps are based on technology developed by Apple and Google, formerly known as the “Privacy Protection Contact Tracker Project”19 and now called Exposure Notification API (application programming interface).
In a May 2020 Forbes article by Simon Chandler, he pointed out that while contact tracing apps “can be secured with a passcode,” they still “threat their privacy. us in broader and more sinister ways.”20 specifically encouraging you to keep your cell phone with you and track your whereabouts while you do, and to continue to “normalize” the ongoing use of technology to dictate freedoms. do and your behavior.
Use ‘Tricks to Profit’
The attorneys general’s lawsuits against Google seek fines and an end to Google’s use of “dark stereotypes” that prompt users to give up more and more personal data in order to increase profits. The lawsuits allege that Google’s products are designed to pressure users to allow location tracking “accidentally or out of frustration,” in violation of the state’s consumer protection laws.21
“Google uses tricks to constantly find ways to track users’ locations,” says Racine. “This lawsuit, by four attorneys general, on a bipartisan basis, is an overdue enforcement action against a blatant violator of the privacy rights and laws of our states.” The more data Google collects about individual users, the more advertising dollars it can generate. But, Racine noted, “The time for profit-making tricks is over.”22
In a similar lawsuit filed in 2020, Arizona attorney general Mark Brnovich also alleges that Google used phishing practices to track users’ locations. The suit reads:23
“This case concerns Google’s widespread and systematic use of deceptive and unfair business practices to obtain location information from users, including their users in Arizona, where which Google then exploited to boost its lucrative advertising business. Google makes it impossible for users to meaningfully opt out of Google’s collection of location information if the user wishes to do so. “
Meanwhile, location data can be used to reveal your gym membership, health visits, shops and restaurants you frequent or where you go to home. worship. It can also be used to deliver personalized advertising on digital billboards as you pass by, and Google tracks and provides customers with information about how well online advertising is performing. online to attract people to brick-and-mortar stores.24
In addition to disabling as many location-tracking apps as possible and removing location history from your Google account, you can avoid additional Google products – and the privacy invasions they cause. – by using the following tips:
- Stop using the Google search engine. Alternatives include DuckDuckGo and Startpage
- Uninstall Google Chrome and use Brave or Opera browser instead, available for all computers and mobile devices. From a security perspective, Opera is far superior to Chrome and offers a free VPN (virtual private network) service to further protect your privacy
- If you have a Gmail account, try a non-Google email service, such as ProtonMail, an encrypted email service based in Switzerland
- Stop using Google docs. Digital Trends published an article suggesting some alternatives25
- If you are a student, do not convert the Google accounts you created as a student into personal accounts
