Google Location Tracking Lawsuit: The $391 Million Settlement

The Misleading Settings

A coalition of state attorneys general investigated how Google handled location data after a 2018 news report revealed a confusing gap in its controls. The investigation found that between 2014 and 2020, Google misled users: turning off a setting called “Location History” did not actually stop Google from collecting location data, because a separate setting, “Web & App Activity,” kept gathering it in the background. Users who believed they had opted out of location tracking were still being tracked, and that data helped power Google’s lucrative targeted advertising.

The problem was not a single toggle but a deliberately opaque design in which one obvious “off” switch did not turn everything off.

The Settlement

In November 2022, Google agreed to pay $391.5 million to 40 states to resolve the investigation — described at the time as the largest multistate privacy settlement in US history. Beyond the money, Google agreed to be clearer with users: showing more information when they turn location settings on or off, providing a detailed breakdown of the location data it keeps, and making key location-tracking controls more visible rather than buried. Google separately faced related suits from individual states.

As a government enforcement settlement, the money went to the states, not to individual consumers through a claims process.

What Users Should Know

To limit location tracking on a Google account, it is not enough to disable one setting: review both “Location History” and “Web & App Activity” in your account, and use auto-delete options to purge stored data periodically. On your phone, you can also restrict which apps have location permission and choose “while using” rather than “always.” The case is a good reminder to check what a privacy toggle actually does.