Google settles lawsuit with Washington state for $39.9 million for misleading consumers about its location tracking practices

Google needs to pay an amount of $39.9 million to Washington state in order to settle a lawsuit accusing the tech giant, a part of Alphabet Inc, to mislead consumers about its location tracking practices, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said.

It is claimed that Google deceived people by providing misleading information to consumers regarding its practices related to tracking their locations.

The state said that inspite of consumers disabled its tracking technology on their smartphones and computers still Google was able to garner and profit from that data, invading consumers' privacy.

A consent decree filed in King County Superior Court requires Google to be more transparent about its tracking practices, and provide a more detailed "Location Technologies" webpage describing them.

"Today's resolution holds one of the most powerful corporations accountable for its unethical and unlawful tactics," Ferguson said in a statement.

Google turned down the claim of wrongdoing but agreed about the settlement.

In November, Google agreed to pay $391.5 million to resolve similar allegations by 40 U.S. states.

Some states including Washington chose to sue Google on their own about its tracking practices. Arizona reached an $85 million settlement with Google last October in one of those cases.

In response to the Washington settlement, Google referred to its earlier statement on the multistate accord, where it said it had addressed various concerns raised by regulators, including "outdated product policies that we changed years ago."