Following Google’s fine of €500 by the French data protection regulator earlier this year, data protection regulators in the US have fined Google $391 million.
The action by 40 US states concerned how Google tracked the location data of users who had opted out of location services on their devices.
In addition to the payment, Google has been ordered to be more transparent about when location tracking is occurring and provide detailed information about location-tracking data on a special web page.
Iowa attorney General Tom Miller said “When consumers make the decision to not share location data on their devices, they should be able to trust that a company will no longer track their every move. This settlement makes it clear that companies must be transparent in how they track customers and abide by state and federal privacy laws.”
This is the largest US settlement involving multiple states, in history.
BBC Tech provide more information at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63635380