Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita announced Dec. 29 that Google will pay Indiana $20 million to resolve the state’s lawsuit against the company’s allegedly misleading location tracking practices, according to a press release from the Attorney General’s Office.
After negotiations between Google and a coalition of 40 state attorneys general stalled, Rokita filed an independent lawsuit. Indiana will receive twice the amount of money with the separate lawsuit than it would have under the deal with the coalition, according to the press release. In November, the coalition agreed on a $391.5 million settlement with the company, according to an Associated Press article.
Rokita sued Google because even a small amount of location data could expose a user’s identity and personal information. Google issued a statement claiming they introduced more transparency tools over the years for users to manage their data and minimize what data is collected.
Google has not admitted to any wrongdoing regarding the deal with Indiana.
According to the press release, the company has misled users about its location practices as early as 2014 by using users' location data to build user profiles and target advertisements. An article by the AP in 2018 found that Google continued to track people’s locations even when they used a feature to opt out of tracking. This caused states to investigate Google’s tracking practices.
