The Federal Court of Australia determined that Google misled its users about the personal location data collected through their Android mobile devices in a period between January 2017 and December 2018, according to a ruling published this Friday.

The Federal Court of Australia found that Google misled its users about the personal location data collected through their devices

“I am convinced that Google’s conduct, assessed as a whole, has been misleading or may have misled or misled ordinary members of the group identified by the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission),” Judge Thomas Thawley said in the ruling published on the judicial website.

The ACCC, which filed its lawsuit in October 2019, argued that the Silicon Valley company wrongly claimed that by creating a Google account and setting it up on Android devices, “Location History” was the only way to collect, save or use data from the user’s location.

However, another Google account setting called “Web and App Activity”, which was enabled by default, also allowed this information to be collected from users, even if “Location History” was disabled.

Google also failed to inform consumers that the “Web and application activity” setting was relevant to collecting personal location data, according to a statement from the ACCC.

“Google’s conduct, evaluated as a whole, conveyed the idea that the activation of ‘Activity of the web and applications’ would not allow it to obtain, retain and use personal data about the user’s location,” said the judge in failure.

The Court also found that Google’s conduct, which contravened Australian Consumer Law, is liable, although it did not set compensation.

“Companies collecting information must explain their settings clearly and transparently so that consumers are not misled,” ACCC President Rod Sims said in a statement.

The senior official, who highlighted this “important victory” for consumers, especially those who are concerned about the protection of privacy online, explained that the ACCC seeks to impose fines and for Google to publish a notice to explain in the future location settings.