Google will pay $20 million to Indiana for resolving the state’s lawsuit against the technology giant over allegedly deceptive location tracking practices. This happened after it was found that Google continued to track people’s location data even after they opted out of such tracking by disabling a feature the company called location history.
Indiana’s lawsuit alleged Google uses location data to build detailed user profiles and target ads. It alleged that the company has deceived and misled users about its practices since at least 2014.
State Attorney General Todd Rokita filed a separate lawsuit against Google when negotiations between the company and a coalition of state attorneys general got delayed. Those states agreed to a $391.5 million settlement with the company in November. Indiana has already received about twice as much money as it would have under the deal with the 40 states in the coalition.
Rokita said he sued Google because even a limited amount of location data can expose a person’s identity and routines. Such data can be used to infer personal details such as political or religious affiliation, income, health status or participation in support groups as well as major life events such as marriage and the birth of children.
